Altered Latitude

  • Jenna

    Sky High in Colorado

    San Diego → Sedona, AZ → Durango, CO → Glenwood Springs, CO → Ft. Collins, CO → Estes Park, CO I woke up on the last morning of our road trip to Estes Park, Colorado and set out on a walk to say my morning prayers/intentions/desparations. As I began to look around and notice my […]

  • Jenna

    Jenna’s Writing

    During our last house cleaning surge I found a cardboard box with “Jenna writing” scribbled on the outside. I couldn’t open it; felt like Pandora’s box of tears and rage.  They say nothing bad happens to a writer….maybe that’s true on paper. I don’t think grief is an unusual place for creativity to ignite, though […]

  • Jenna

    Scattered

    I think I have written and shared “this” poem about six different ways. Do we ever stop looking for ourselves? Anytime I write about my “parts” I get a flashback to Ashlee Simpson’s song “Pieces of Me” and it makes me want to never share any of it. Thanks for reading anyways! I see clothes […]

  • Jenna

    The Third Bird

    If you are ever wondering how to slow down in life, simply go on a walk with a toddler.  Today, I let Mara lead. Rather than my usual, “come on, let’s go, time to roll”…. I followed her home from dropping her big sisters off at school. And seven minutes slowly became thirty.  Her inherent […]

  • Jenna

    Mother Tongue

    I pulled a honey bee stinger out of a little girl’s palm at a birthday party. She was already crying from missing her mom, but this infraction really took the cake.  Five of us mothers huddled around, reassuring and loving on her — someone grabbed a bag of frozen corn.  Her mom was called and […]

  • Jenna

    Taking the Long Way

    Our road trip from California to Minnesota on the fringe of winter kneaded me like dough into an expanded version of myself. Travel has a way with transformation.  California has always been the promised land in my mind. I have traveled many places, but never taken a road trip across this many state lines before.  […]

  • Jenna

    Not Another Motherhood Post: Part 187

    One moment I am devouring my kids, dumbfounded by their brilliance and my insatiable need to snuggle them into oblivion.  The next, motherhood devours me whole —  then spits me out, bitter to the taste.  When we had our third daughter, Mara, we were living in a tiny Airbnb. The railroad tracks ran just to […]

  • Jenna

    Impermanence

    Having a garden is good for someone who is both wild and also likes a little control. I dream of owning an orchard one day, a jungle of vines growing and dying; something I can tend to that matches my inner chapters. I am always looking for ways to be seen and belong (aren’t we […]

  • Jenna

    Mother // Nature

    I wonder what it feels liketo cozy up with my arm and entwine with my hands. How does my warm body wrapped around the entirety of you feel?What is it like to be comforted by the sight and the scent of me;to watch me leave? Tell me, does the ocean wonder how her waves feel to the […]

  • Jenna

    Mother // Daughter

    I am not responsible for every bad moodEvery freckle that appears(Should have put on more sunscreen)Every failure and every success.I am responsible for meFor who I am and the choices I make. We are separate Me and her Different people with different childhoods. Though sometimes it’s hard to see the lines between us whenShe came from me, through me.She […]