Author: Mel Henderson

Mel Henderson has taught writing as a graduate student at Brigham Young University since 2012, and she will earn her MFA in Creative Nonfiction in 2016. Her Master’s thesis is a collection of essays entitled Animal Mothers: On the Primitive, Fierce, Humanizing Practice of Nurture. Her current projects include the memoir of an Iranian fugitive and immigrant, co-writing an independent film, and a children’s book commissioned to feature in the film. Mel lives in Provo, Utah, with her husband, children, four cats (quite by accident), and one small, socially maladjusted dog.

The Ghost Ballerina and Me

A woman who hides in a cave does not make more sunlight available for others because she isn’t partaking herself. A woman who has cancer is not making health more available to others by being the one with cancer. A woman in a destructive relationship is not making healthy relationships more available to others because she didn’t “take” such a relationship for herself. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Good generates more good and makes more good possible for everyone around it.