Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EST January 14th 2026

14 Comments

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we took a close look at the painting “Middlesborough” by  Stuart Pearson Wright, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Write about a parent figure.”

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (“Leave a Reply”), to keep the conversation going here, bearing in mind that the blog of course is a public space where confidentiality is not assured.

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Please join us for our next session Friday January 30th at 12pm EST, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Middlesborough by Stuart Pearson Wright

Credit: Stuart Pearson Wright

14 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EST January 14th 2026”

  1. Stef's avatar Stef

    I’m an orphan
    If you will
    Have been since I was fifty

    There’s allegedly some name out there
    For when you lose a child
    And whatever it is
    I am that too

    How hard it is for my arms
    My smiles
    My overwhelming love
    To have no home
    To not reach
    To not touch

    I’m an orphan
    If you will
    I hope you don’t
    Won’t
    For you see
    All of this love needs to
    Be

    Do you want it

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • michele348's avatar michele348

      Stef, your piece broke my heart. The loss of a child is never made easier by the passage of time… it is a wound that seems to never heal over. My blessings are sent to you.

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  2. naydee's avatar naydee

    I am the parent figure. I am the parent. I am the one who figures it out. i am the figure who parents, the figure in the corner, on the couch, at the door – greeting, stalling, reminding (don’t forget your keys). i am the parent with no child – i’ll figure it out , i guess. i make home for others, wear out my housecoat, with no doorstep of my own. no figure to welcome me. no parent to figure it out.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • michele348's avatar michele348

      naydee…to tend to the problems of another, not expecting anything in return, but the hope is, one day someone will notice you need tending to, and it will be there.

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  3. Trevor Hebert's avatar Trevor Hebert

    The more I look, the more I find something wrong. The more I look, the more I see the traumas that have evolved. Stumbling in the dark, not pitch black, just the absence of light.

    The harder I view what is a work of art, the more I fight the teams from yesrs and years of too much on her plate with three kids and a husband on his death bed. A little solace for the woman who could only do her best.

    She fought through the abuse and neglect of her childhood and the death of her young mother just for the pattern to present its ugly head once again.

    But that ends with me for I will testify to the God’s that be, withered and broken and beaten by the road from which the bare feet of my family walked… Will not be my own.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  4. Naomi Kramer's avatar glitterydelightfullyaf7ce572dc

    Prompt: Write about a parent figure.

    A parent delivers you

    into this world

    gently or harshly

    We are our own individual

    But inevitably touched

    by the hand off.

    We hope to have had

    and give

    a gentle and strong,

    reassuring,

    encouraging and strengthening

    entry into the world.

    It is not an easy world

    so the path cannot be

    lined with cotton candy

    but neither with broken glass.

    Strong ocean and earth mother and father

    to nuture us on our journey.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. michele348's avatar michele348

    About a parent figure~~~

    The children of the world
    walk about aimlessly…they are lost souls.
    Parents snatched from them
    by war, by the cruelty of mankind.
    Rejected by a world
    that seems not to value the sanctity of life.

    There is no time for children’s games…
    they are forced to grow up
    long before their time.
    Their faces look aged,
    wrinkles where there should be smiles.

    But there is no one to grab them by the hand,
    to lead them into the light,
    into the air of compassion.

    And so, they simply exist,
    moment by moment,
    hoping that one day
    a hand will be extended to them.

    Will that happen in my lifetime?
    I pray it will.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. al3793's avatar al3793

    A Parent Figure

    When I think about all the times I was called upon to pose as a parent figure,

    sometimes a father figure, sometimes a mother figure…

    a caring, trusted, benevolent adult in the life of another…

    the list quickly gets long.

    It wasn’t my plan to do this and

    they didn’t teach us about it in medical school or residency.

    It was like strolling along the edge of boundaries, carefully aware of the landscape being traveled so as not to violate them.

    But, my role as a Physician, some days, just seemed to morph that way.

    There was a teen who lost his mom and was so not ready to lose his mom.

    He had a good father, but he couldn’t be a father and a mother.

    Some days the young man would come in just seeking comfort, like a mom would offer.

    I’d listen and offer some practical, simple advice and reassurance that things would get ok and they would.

    And there was a young woman who I cared for from birth and who had anxiety, likely from birth. She would come scared with a symptom and just wanted my opinion and reassurance. She didn’t want tests or medicine. She just wanted someone to see her for who she was and listen to her and care. Her father was physically present but emotionally distant. So some days I had an added role to fill.

    I’m just getting started, the list is long.

    I was careful not to assume the full time role of a patient’s parent. I was constantly vigilant  when the tug was to provide a momentary piece of what was missing in their lives. And when those moments arrived they were coupled with direction toward self-agency, self-sufficiency, empowerment and just the right amount of caring.

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    Reply
    • michele348's avatar michele348

      Sometimes all a person needs is to be told they do not stand alone, that there’s another that hears their calls for help, that tells them they have the strength and courage to meet the future. It sounds like you were that person for many…you were that outstretched hand that I mentioned in my piece. And for those individuals, you hold a special place in their hearts.

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