"Balms" by Jennifer M. Szescula

 — I am melancholy over the trees.

I take comfort in the women before me who have the scars, the dreams, “the smell.”

Jennifer M. Szescula feels most at home surrounded by trees and mountains. She has written voraciously her whole life, sharing in bursts of enthusiasm (thanks to Winston Salem Writers!) along with decades of silence. Though she desires to write fiction, her natural voice is found writing about the everyday moments and challenges of being human. She is always trying something new-which gives her eternal writing material.

Author’s Talk

I find comfort and solace in quiet, grey and melancholy moments.  I don’t find them depressing.  

Jennifer M Szescula

I was always considered a strange child, liking grey rainy days. Finally, a chance to read and write and not be told to “go outside and play!” Being around trees always gave me that same rainy-day comfort when I was outside “to play.”  

As an adult, I still need those grey quiet moments or being around the trees to propel me out of my head and be excited about the world again. 

Midlife has taken me to my past (sometimes kicking and screaming) against my will.  Begrudgingly, it gave me the chance to make up for what was lost and heal what was broken - in my own infallible way.  The moments and memories now change so quickly. Sometimes I don’t even know where and who I am.   

I don’t give myself enough credit or acknowledge where I’ve come from, where I’ve gone and where I am headed to next. I ignore the factors of my life at times to my own detriment.  I just put my head down and keep going, barely seeing the world around me and within me along the way. 

Writing gives me the chance to look at all of myself and my life, integrate it to take on my journey, and to connect to the world around me.—Jennifer Szescula