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Writings
Portfolio
Books by Eileen Slifer, Artist
My Etsy Store
My Patreon
About the Artist
Contact
Subscribe

Personal Writings

The Year I Slept Through Christmas

December 19, 2022
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Life Stories, Personal Writings, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings

1983 was definitely the year I slept through Christmas. I checked the calendar. Yep, Christmas fell on a Sunday that year. And, I recall where I was the surrounding years. Oh wait. It actually might have been 1982. There’s a chance it was that year. But, I really think it was 1983. Not sure where I was 1982. Christmas of 1981 I had taken a bus to Boonsboro, MD and spent the holiday with my Aunt Virginia, Uncle Bill and...

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By eileenslifer
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In 1971, I Wrote a Somewhat Rude Letter to Santa

December 15, 2022
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Personal Writings, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings

In 1971, I wrote a somewhat rude letter to Santa and had the audacity to sign the thing “love.” I mean, how could I love Santa–a man I barely knew? Yet I called him by his first name (omitting the Claus), signed it with my full name, and took a wild guess at his address. What appears so rude to me is that I omitted small talk and didn’t say please, nor did I acknowledge his past efforts on my...

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By eileenslifer
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Mountain Daisies of West Virginia

December 7, 2022
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Artwork For Sale, Life Stories, Personal Writings, Uncategorized, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings

In July of this year I took a trip to my mother’s hometown of Buckhannon, West Virginia. It was a personal pilgrimage of sorts. I had only been to Buckhannon once (and very briefly) during the summer of 1978. That was the summer between my father’s retirement in 1977 after working over forty years with the Soil Conservation Service in Elkton, MD, and his death in May 1979. We had gone from the annual Slifer family reunion in Boonsboro, MD...

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By eileenslifer
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The Failed Divorce

November 24, 2022
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Personal Writings, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings, Writings on Violence in its Various Forms

“Divorce doesn’t fix anything. It just exchanges one set of problems for another.” ~ words of a dear friend spoken to me somewhere around the late 80’s or early 90’s The term failed marriage is routine, these days. But no one really speaks with any seeming clarity about the failed divorce beyond the immediate aftermath and point of bringing minor children to the legal age of adulthood. I really don’t know of many – if any – specific materials or...

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By eileenslifer
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When Peculiar People Decide That You Are Acting Peculiar!

November 21, 2022
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Family Outlines and Assorted Collectibles, Life Stories, Personal Writings, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings, Writings on Violence in its Various Forms

(written 11/5/22 to 11/2022) In April of 1946, three of my mother’s siblings decided my mother was acting peculiar. Peculiar enough to permanently end her college pursuits and dreams (it is appearing she was interested in getting a degree in music rather than business), by withdrawing her from West Virginia University without her consent when she was a student in good standing, gainfully employed and a twenty-two year old adult. Peculiar enough to be violent with her. And peculiar enough...

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By eileenslifer
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Hell Came Calling This Morning…

November 16, 2022
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Beautiful Song and Poetry Lyrics, Personal Writings, Writings

I know the title is shocking, perhaps, but my intention is far from profanity. The word “hell” was on the lips of Jesus Himself, a few times in scripture. Technically, it was another word in Aramaic that came to us translated as such. I seem to be regularly moving through a number of ongoing difficult and hellish situations. No day is one-hundred percent difficult, or one-hundred percent of anything. As CS Lewis noted, something along the lines of “we never...

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By eileenslifer
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Much is Expected of Us on Our Journey

November 7, 2022
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Personal Writings, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings

I suppose that I, like others, will take three to seven days to readjust to falling back just one hour in the journey. Whether it is springing forward or falling back, our personal rhythms undergo responses to even the slightest change of a single hour of time. It may not sound like much, but, while my clock tells me it is midnight, it is really 1 am. I had some joy today – a young woman I’m getting to know...

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By eileenslifer
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Yes, Those Are Two Piles of Bloody, Severed Breasts

November 6, 2022
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My Poetry, Personal Writings, Religion, Politics and Current Events, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings, Writings on Violence in its Various Forms

Yes, those are two piles of bloody, severed breasts. Yes, that is a symbolic image of some type of demonic force standing in between the two piles – some dark, demonic priest, paying homage to the almighty dollar. Yes, those are compliant worshippers, speaking the specifically crafted words that echo into this world like incense to a false god in the name of honoring pronouns. Yes, in the distance is a simple representation of Life and the Garden, of sorts…indicating...

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By eileenslifer
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Eating KFC and a Front Row Seat

October 30, 2022
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Illustrated Short Stories, Life Stories, Personal Writings, Women's, Family, and Recovery Issues, Writings, Writings on Violence in its Various Forms

I feel like I must have told this story a thousand times in my life. And often, in my younger years, in a fast-paced comic style as though I were recounting a freak show that I had the amusement of watching. Indeed, it is probably the first of many life stories that take on an almost rehearsed recounting of the highlights of this day, evening and the many days, months and years that would follow and be influenced (in my...

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By eileenslifer
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When the Spaces in Between Words Do Not Add Up

October 24, 2022
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Family Outlines and Assorted Collectibles, Personal Writings, Writings

As in most families throughout human history, the passing and preserving of family stories is considered a worthwhile pursuit. For me, family stories seem to hold a critical space and I mean this in two ways. Critical as in essential to me in my continued understandings of my own life and self, and critical as in information to deeply analyze, explore, interpret and otherwise not simply take at face value. This morning, as I muse through a writing in a...

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By eileenslifer
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Eileen Slifer

I am a visual artist who works in a variety of mediums - producing fine art, illustration and design commissions/products for clients. I have been creating since childhood and sharing my giftings for hire since 1989. I also love to write and have been expressing in this way for a number of years in private poems, stories and journals that have been shared with treasured friends or publicly. Thank you for visiting my blog. I value the time and interest you spend on my expressions, and I read every comment.

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