Five Minutes explores five minutes of a life in one hundred words. Five minutes is edited by Susanna Baird, with editorial support from managing editor Maria s. picone, newsletter editor kate meen, and founding reader bobbi lerman, plus our rotating team of guest readers, who you can meet in the latest newsletteR. Five Minutes was founded in October 2020, with the Salem (Mass.)-based writing group Carrot Cake Writers supplying the journal’s first pieces. We’d love to read your five. Submit here

Magic in Ojai

I drove with anxious anticipation, little flutters keeping me present in my body. The roads twisted; the GPS took me through tiny backroads I recognized from before. My destination was deliberate. I wouldn’t know anyone, yet I already felt completely at home. Twenty years ago, I would have played the part all too well. I would have pretended to feel. A chameleon for skin, hair, and smiles. Not this time. I didn’t retreat from the retreat. I opened my heart and let the other seekers in and fell in love a hundred times. Oh, to connect, to embody the love.

Darcy Alsop is an overeducated freelance writer in Orange County, California. She hikes, writes, owns a business, and loves her family, dogs, and words. www.dmaconsultingservices.net www.discoursewithdarcy.blogspot.co Instagram: @yogadarc Facebook: Darcy Davies-Alsop

Thunder in May

I Owe Her This