When Happiness Returned, I Thought I Had Lost My Muse

By Karen Egee

When my mother died, grief cracked my father open like a geode. Something about his state of vulnerability along with his emotional connection, his continual reaching out, clawing back from grief, cracked my writing open as well.

Every day back then, something happened, some mix of tender and sad that moved me to write. I plucked from a seemingly endless stream of poignant passing moments, writing essay after essay, publishing a few.

Formerly busy with his own pursuits ...