Lightning in a Mason Jar

by Catherine Mann

Changing my identity and leaving behind everything familiar should have been difficult. Traumatic, even. Except it wasn’t. Because from birth, we women aren’t tethered to our names.

As if a woman’s entire worth, her sum total sense of self, were tied into her ring finger and uterus. A Mrs. or a mom.

In the silence that followed came a soul-deep realization. Phillip intended to keep me institutionalized forever and take what was mine for himself.

“June,” she said, simply. “As in the month. Because my life starts today, on June the first.”

My birthday 🥰

“We’re in the South,” I reminded him. “So that should be lightning in a Mason jar.”

She would chase her own dreams. But she would chase a new one too. One that would make Winnie proud.

“Praise the Lord and pass the gravy.”