Author Archives: dahnajeen

About dahnajeen

I'm Donna Jean Hunter. I'm also Donna Cox - former married name and the name I share with my children and with my ex-husband, father of my children, and friend, David Cox. My 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Patterson told me I was a great writer and would be an author when I grew up. She always had me read my stories to the class, and even took me around to the other classrooms to have me read to them. I'm pretty sure the other kids all hated me that year. I don't care though. I love Mrs. Patterson. Of course she did not know then about the Internet and blogging, how much of what people read would no longer be on paper - and how much of it would be done for free! - when I grew up. I have had 10 or 12 of my pieces published in college literary journals, and for a while during college, I actually received pay for working as a technical writer. Then for a few years I taught writing to teenagers as a high school English teacher. But other than that, I can't say I'm a writer in the sense that it is what I do for a living. But I am a writer. I have been all my life and can’t see myself ever stopping whether anyone reads it or not. I hope someone enjoys some of it.

Maybe why this feels so personal to me . . .

Posted on February 1, 2017 by dahnajeen

Many years ago, there was an awful man, inexplicably placed in a position of power – not great power, but enough for him to enjoy and abuse. Entrusted with safeguarding my welfare, he instead used his power against me in … Continue reading →

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Go back and fix it.

Posted on September 10, 2016 by dahnajeen

There’s a point to this story, but it’s gonna take me a minute . . . Once upon a time in the early 80s, a young man broke my heart. He asked me to marry him very early in our … Continue reading →

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Boom! Zzzzzzzzz

Posted on April 13, 2016 by dahnajeen

I really miss the days when a gun shot inside the house did not wake me up. Or one right outside my bedroom window, or my mother screaming from the kitchen only caused me to rouse a bit and then … Continue reading →

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Good Dirt

Posted on March 27, 2016 by dahnajeen

I do not like NEW places. I don’t mean places I’m unfamiliar with, although that is also a struggle for me sometimes. I mean places that are just actually new. Now, I have nothing against new houses; I wouldn’t mind … Continue reading →

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I really need to update my blog more often . . .

Posted on February 12, 2016 by dahnajeen
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Thanks, Ladies

Posted on October 3, 2015 by dahnajeen

It’s funny to me how little things start the synapses firing, interesting the trains of thought our brains run on. Recently, I put some Carmex on my lips from a roller tube and remembered when they didn’t have those, but … Continue reading →

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Adorable Argument

Posted on September 27, 2014 by dahnajeen

You poked my heart. (Still taken from Tara Willmott’s Youtube video. Link to video below.) This video, in addition to being adorable, I think contains a lesson (or a few) for many of us “grown-ups.” Here are some parallels I … Continue reading →

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Johnny Carson and Bangs

Posted on September 11, 2014 by dahnajeen

One of the stories I taught to my 10th graders this week (“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker) prompted a discussion of what makes things valuable, and what one possession they would choose to save if they could only save one thing. So, … Continue reading →

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I see you.

Posted on September 6, 2014 by dahnajeen

Tonight at a restaurant, I saw a young man (30ish) sitting at a table across from an older man. Could have been his dad; I don’t know. They spoke very little. The younger man sat facing my direction, just a … Continue reading →

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Are you blessed? Or are you bragging?

Posted on July 14, 2014 by dahnajeen

Some days I feel it more deeply than other days – the empty, achy feeling caused by the lack of something I’ve always wanted desperately, but cannot have. It doesn’t matter what it is; my point would apply to any … Continue reading →

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