jessiebenzing, Author at Jessica Benzing

The letter of the law: An A to Z guide to finding your joy in writing

The letter of the law: An A to Z guide to finding your joy in writing

jessiebenzing2024-03-29T22:47:36+00:00March 29th, 2024|Writing|

A is for the author (you!) Pen tucked behind your ear: Let’s use your gift to make them laugh, Get mad, or shed a tear. B is for the books you’ll write, Your creative spirit, fed. The story’s waiting, time to start; It’s anxious to be read! C — the cover. This is where The first impression’s made. There’s nothing quite like walking past And seeing it displayed. D is for the dream — your book! Just flying off the shelves. The Today Show calls, you ditch your sweats, And stay in chic hotels. E is [...]

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To my brother, on the day before your daughter becomes mine

To my brother, on the day before your daughter becomes mine

jessiebenzing2024-03-29T20:15:45+00:00July 16th, 2023|Family Life, Leaps of faith, Parenting|

This past year has been such a mixed bag of emotions for me. The loss of you has been so difficult to reconcile in my mind that for much of the time I have avoided thinking too deeply about it. It feels like a great, yawning black hole of sadness that if I looked too long I would fall in and shatter and never find all the pieces of me again. Someday I will have the strength to put pen to paper and set this pain free, but for now I will hold it prisoner until it beats down the [...]

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The Collateral Damage of Active Addiction

The Collateral Damage of Active Addiction

jessiebenzing2024-03-29T20:21:19+00:00November 8th, 2021|Addiction, Family Life|

When you love someone who is addicted to something that can end their life in an instant, it consumes you. The fear. The sadness. The waiting for the phone to ring. The wondering what a different step down a different path could have meant for them, for all of you. You begin to wonder if you told them enough that you love them, how much their presence in your life means to you, how much they mean to the people that love them. You question everything while the voice inside you that you've been silencing for months is screaming. There [...]

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You will never be a “step-” anything

You will never be a “step-” anything

jessiebenzing2024-03-29T20:17:03+00:00October 15th, 2020|Family Life, Parenting|

There's a story I've yet to share — one that explains the whos and the whys and the hows of my family. I'll get there eventually, but until then, suffice it to say that it's equally tragic and beautiful, but in the tragedy we've discovered a host of blessings we never would have known without it. If not for the tragic parts of our story, some of the pieces that make us beautiful would exist only in someone else's story... or not at all. Knowing this makes it impossible for me to say that I wish that things had been [...]

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Rusty scissors and a kiddie pool: A birth story

Rusty scissors and a kiddie pool: A birth story

jessiebenzing2024-03-29T20:17:25+00:00October 25th, 2019|Leaps of faith|

It was literally a matter of life or death, the decision rested solely in my hands — and it needed to be made quickly. I glanced up at Patricia for a fraction of a second, but it was just long enough to see the desperate pleading in her eyes. Everything that mattered to them, the future of their family, hinged on my decisions and actions for the next thirty seconds. My eyes dropped back down to the surface of the water, then below, where I could see the shape of the baby’s head which moments — yet, seemingly years — [...]

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Perfect teenagers and other impossible dreams

Perfect teenagers and other impossible dreams

jessiebenzing2024-03-21T20:24:07+00:00October 18th, 2019|Parenting|

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a mom. Not any mom, though — the MOST AWESOME MOM! I thought it would be easy. I had a blueprint for how it would go, how I would parent, how I wouldn't parent. (More on that later) Let me say that again in case you missed it. I thought it would be easy. I figured I'd "grow up", go to college, start my career, marry the "right guy", and start having oodles of babies who would grow up and love me unconditionally, and because I had this [...]

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