About

Carissa the Plant

My father is a soil scientist, my mother has degrees in botany and horticulture, and I was named after a plant. My name, Carissa, comes from Carissa Macrocarpa, more commonly known as the Natal Plum.  The plant is originally from Africa and grows to be a large shrub, although with coaxing it is also sometimes used for bonsai. It is mostly poisonous, except for its small tart plums. Delicate white flowers grow from its waxy leaves, as well as sharp two-pronged thorns.

I imagine that life is a lot like a Natal Plum, full of beauty and yet also full of prickles at times.  Sometimes deadly, sometimes fruitful, in season it comes forth with blooms of fragrant snow-colored petals.

This blog is about me as I grow, much like a Natal Plum, as it would twist and turn in the wind and weather of its lifespan.

Carissa the Person

I grew up in Southern Idaho on a small hobby-farm with alfalfa, compost, chickens, and younger siblings (who were just as ruffled and dirty as the chickens).  Recently, I moved to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, where I've grown fond of fog and more fond of gardens.

I grew up with a hearty dose of hard work and imagination.  I learned by example to eat healthy balanced meals and to always cultivate ingenuity in any situation.  After graduating high school, secretly wanting to be an art major, I went to Boise State University for a degree in English, emphasizing in creative writing.  Since then, my short story "Cricket Song" has been published in the Berkeley Fiction Review. I've married the best man I know, who keeps me laughing and makes me want to be a better version of myself. I love to explore my surroundings.

This is my life, the grand and the glum, with plums and double-pronged thorns.