To be happy, I need to hold on to the thought that I am ordinary. It sounds wrong, I know, when everything tells us to be extraordinary, when everything we aspire to […]
An Ordinary Life
The Dog Park
Savvy begins to bark before I even have my tennis shoes all the way on. She’s excited! We’re going to the dog park! Hurry up! Time for a walk! It drives my […]
Depression, Medication, and Creativity
Right now, as I’m typing these words, I feel like I don’t have “it.” “It” is that elusive quality we need in order to write. We know it when we feel it, […]
Some Thoughts on the Weather
Tornadoes were the weather danger where I grew up. Illinois’ flat country is like that perfectly made bed that your dog just has to mess up—irresistible to tornadoes. When the sky turned […]
Announcing the publication of There’s No Wrong Way: 44 Meditations
The Gloria Sirens are happy to announce the first book from TGS Publications: There’s No Wrong Way: 44 Meditations, by yours truly, Katie (Katherine) Riegel. Like most of my posts, the book is […]
Memphis, TN: Ninety-three Percent
My 2017 eclipse day had two breaks in the clouds, during which my husband and I watched the sun with a bite taken out of it through our eclipse glasses. The best […]
On the Need for Solitude
I sometimes think I never wanted kids because, somewhere in the pre-teen core of me, I knew I was a person whose need for solitude was great. Feeling guilty about wanting to […]
A Quiet Passion
I saw A Quiet Passion, the 2017 movie about Emily Dickinson (directed by Terence Davies, starring Cynthia Nixon) this month. I’m not a movie critic, but I am a poet and a […]
An informal review of Matt Haig’s book _Reasons to Stay Alive_
So I finally got around to reading Matt Haig’s Reasons to Stay Alive. I follow him on Twitter, and a friend sent me a couple of quotes from him at important moments. […]
Why I Can’t Just Turn Off the News
“Tell everyone on this train I love them.” —Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23 I want to turn off the news. As someone who struggles with depression and anxiety, I need to turn […]
The Gloria Sirens 