Zain Mackey

Life Artist

Acceptance

Never Too Late to Be Schooled

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Wanna be schooled by an entire group of women you’re leading? That’s what happened to me when I innocently asked my Starfish Mothers Sphere the following question, prompted by reading Brene Brown’s Rising Strong. . “Do you think people are doing the best they can?” . I was in the “hell no” camp. People can

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Absolutely Afraid of the Dark

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By the time I was born, my parents were ready to get on with their lives. They went out a lot. It made me nervous and paranoid to be left alone in the suddenly big and echo-y house. We didn’t have an alarm system and we lived on a quiet, deserted street. Even with the

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Introduction to Adulting: Party Hardy

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When I was 13, I was the singer in a band.  We didn’t play out anywhere, just practiced and jammed and had fun. That is until our classmate Mona and her brother Eddie asked us if we wanted to play a pool party for their parents. The big time! We were excited. We said yes.

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Unfortunately Froggie Goes Camping

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I’ve taken a lot of trips with my sister. Some of those trips were fabulous and some were an adventure I’m hoping never to repeat. . On one trip we were driving across country in a Westphalia VW camper van with her now ex-husband Charles. He’d never been to Mexico, so we nipped down to

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Fabulous! You’re looking absolutely fabulous!

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When my daughter Dakota came to visit, we went for our traditional manicure, pedicure and lunch date. We’re not really girly girls but we do like having our toes and fingernails looking groomed and snazzy instead or snagged, bitten, broken and neglected: our usual sad state. . For those of you unaware, manicures and pedicures

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Interrupting the Play

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I have a confession to make. I can be a bit of a troublemaker. It’s put me in some dicey and some hilarious situations. When I was in college, I went to a lot of the campus theatrical productions. It was super cheap, usually good entertainment and a place to explore new ideas. Occasionally there

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Playing the Copa

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When my friend Michele and I went to Brazil, we didn’t really know what to expect. It was a wonderful experience and we learned and relearned things. Like… what it’s like to be in a country where you don’t speak the language and you go out to eat; how we Americans see race and color

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The Stumble Inn

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My sister Mary and her husband Angus, fluent speakers of Portuguese, went to Brazil for months every year. One year they asked if I’d like to meet them there. I was thrilled. My friend Michele asked me, “Can I come too?” Next thing I know, we’re booking tickets. I think we got 15 different shots

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Aliceville Breakfast

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We were in Aliceville, Alabama at a blues festival and we were hungry. . Half my family is from the South and when I get back down there the deep southern comes out in my accent. Suddenly I remember phrases from long ago visits with the grandparents and start dropping endings and drawling my words

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Maybe Zombies are Just Sleep Deprived

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For some reason I’m not sleeping. That is, I am sleeping but in only 1-2 hour increments. I’ve tried melatonin, virgin hot toddies, sleep meditations, 1.5Hz binaural beats specifically for sleep. Still every hour or so I’m up, wide awake. I’ve tried relaxing all the parts of my body, one by one, placing a heated

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Convince me. Do Deer Really Have Brains?

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When you live in the country 30 minutes from town, there’s a good chance something will leap, fly, scurry, slither or saunter across the road in front of you. Deer are a real problem. Coming home one evening, I was just crossing an area of open fields when a huge buck leapt out in front

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