Venus Rising

Is It Really About Dieting?

For years I drank three cups of coffee per day combined with three to four sodas per day and basically ate anything and everything I wanted during the day. I was the epitome of a couch potato. As a result the pounds increased and I felt sluggish with absolutely no energy at all.

Poetry: Parnassus, Best Band, and Birth

they came down

from higher ground

barely moved

mistaken

Staying Together for the Sake of the Children

Yesterday I was sitting in the kitchen of a young mother of three children talking about her family and marriage. I was there in my professional role because she has been having difficulty with the defiant and aggressive behaviors of her middle child, a three year old boy. Our conversation got around to marriage and she openly shared with me that she and her husband were at a cross roads in theirs, and they are both questioning if they should stay together. She said they do not love one another as they once did. What she used to love about him, now really irritated her. Sex no longer held the excitement it once did. Their personalities and behaviors were very opposite. With heightened emotion she said to me, “We can’t just stay together for the sake of the kids!” 

Living with Canine Osteosarcoma

I moved to Vermont in 1997 with three short-term goals: get an apartment, get a job, and get a greyhound. Within six weeks, all three had been accomplished. A little red brindle girl, Katie was the perfect combination of spunky, sassy, and lazy. Initially, I didn’t give much thought to getting a second grey, but exactly two years later, we welcomed another little red brindle girl into our home. Ellie easily fell into our routine, and more importantly, she didn’t challenge Katie’s status as Alpha Dog. 

The Lesson

I belong to a very liberal branch of Judaism. I would feel too constricted otherwise. Recently some members of the congregation invited me to join their Tahara group. I liked being asked, but I didn’t even know what a Tahara was. When it was explained to me that for women who desire it, the Tahara group do the traditional cleansing and dressing of a dead woman’s body for burial, I was quiet and told them I would think about it.

Venus Rising Celebrates its BIRTH Day!

Venus Rising Magazine officially launched on August 15, 2006. VR staff gathered with some of the site’s earliest fans at the home of editor Ann Janda to celebrate the much-anticipated birth of the magazine.