Family Matters

On Body Image and Being Enough

Dianna Bonny Lotus Icon

When I was an impressionable young girl my mother was larger than life, thin as a rail and favored cigarettes to eating. She subsisted on cottage cheese, See’s candy and vodka, and she looked damn good in clothes. While her contemporaries fell victim to the vagaries of middle age weight gain, she managed to defy it. I was never quite…

A Summer Watermelon Salad with a Warning

summer watermelon salad | Dianna Bonny Photography

Last weekend, we were celebrating graduation, and since my dad was here, we wrapped it all together into a party to include Father’s Day. I don’t do much entertaining because it seems to require more concentrated effort than it used too and I get overwhelmed by the planning. Luckily, my darling friend stepped in to the rescue and organized the…

Ashes, Ashes We All Fall Down

buddha statue | Dianna Bonny Photography

In the mental fog of the first few days after my husband’s suicide, when I was filling out forms and answering questions and learning that my life was not entirely how it appeared, I had this idea in my mind that I would send the ashes to his mother. In fact, I listed her as the destination on the transit…

Parenting Through Grief: The Beauty of Resilience

passport and map

One of the most challenging parts of my journey has been the feeling that I have lost precious time with my children during these last two and a half years. Although I am powerless to change that fact, perhaps it is what inspires me to find the silver lining in the mess. It gives me a sense of recapturing the…

Marriage and Betrayal: I Burned My Wedding Dress

prayer on the beach

This past August marked what would have been my 25th wedding anniversary. As a way of releasing the commitment bound to that day, I burned my wedding dress. Over the years, I tried on the oyster-pink raw silk garment to see if it still fit. At times it did, while others it did not. In August, it fit my body…