Everybody hates me on April Fool’s Day. To me, there is nothing more delightful than laughing, which is why I love practical jokes. Pulling them on others. It’s a one-way street. No one is allowed to pull them on me. I’ll have to give you the backstory before I tell you about the first prank I ever played on my husband Funk. The children I brought forth from my womb almost 40 years ago now were extremely demanding, and they wanted my attention not Funk’s. I was a mostly stay-at-home mom, and when they were infants especially, I remember feeling […]

Creating a beautiful life, even from the ruins. It’s been almost three years since I experienced the biggest shock of my life. The heartbreak, disbelief, betrayal, and ensuing trauma nearly took me out. I will write about it someday because that’s what I do. I speak to the elephant in the room, hoping to help others who face similar sorrows, because an elephant left uncovered can kill you. For now, I want to speak about the negative effect that stress has on our bodies—physical, emotional, and spiritual—because if I hadn’t experienced it, I would’ve never believed the impact it has. […]

Sometimes it’s really hard living inside of me. In the 65 years I’ve had on earth, I’ve finally learned that life is just a series of tragedies and miracles. It seems you can’t have one without the other, and what kind of bullshit is that? In 2016, I got over my 20-year fear of flying to take my beautiful sister Jane to the Island of Hawai’i for medical treatment. We were supposed to be there for three months, but she unexpectedly died a few days before we were to leave. Three weeks later, I took the trip for the two […]

One of my greatest joys this year is becoming a contributing writer for See Beyond Magazine! This month, I made the front cover again! My article, “The Beauty is the Same” begins on page 12. I love that mine and my mother’s photographs are on the same page, together again! A big thank you goes to #StephanieElwood, #seebeyondmagazine and #AuraImbarus https://www.magcloud.com/Webviewer/2606675

For those of your who are interested in a MAJOR BARGAIN, the eBooks for the first two titles in the C’mon Funk Trilogy are COMPLETELY FREE on Amazon this coming Thursday and Friday, August 17th and 18th. First Title: May Cause Drowsiness and Blurred Vision: The Side Effects of Bravery—What happens when we risk real talk and stop hiding behind nice? When we reach for brave? An entertaining look at overcoming anxiety and living a bigger, more carefree life. Finding the New and Better You. Second Title: C’mon Funk Move Your Ass: How a Demure Little Wife Made Her Husband […]

Funk-The-Janitor, Part 3 “Stick with me babe and you’ll be farting through silk.” If someone had given me a heads-up way back when that I’d be devoting my life to my husband (Funk), I would have run the other way while I still had the chance. It’s been forty-six years since those all-too-sincere words were spoken, and instead of returning to my own dreams full time, I’m still immersed in his, silk nowhere in my foreseeable future. The other week I was an anxious mess. My desk was piled high with tasks that should’ve been completed months ago. I still […]

*There are two upcoming Amazon dates to get a FREE copy of my latest eBook—Please See Details Below! For now, the latest post. WTF is with this pandemic? I wrote the last line of the newly released “C’mon Funk, Move Your —: How a Demure Little Wife Made Her Husband a Big City Mayor” at 6:24 p.m. on June 24, 2016, in Long Beach, New York. The manuscript weighed in at a whopping 1,102 pages. I expected to publish this 2nd volume in the 3-book “C’mon Funk Trilogy” in the spring of 2020. I was late getting it out the […]

Funk-The-Janitor, Part 2 Sometime during the 500-mile trip back to Nashville from our wedding that took place in West Virginia, I turned in my seat and asked my husband-of-two-days, “Does this mean I can’t have fun anymore?” Funk, nine years my senior, had been with dozens of women before he met me, and while I’d been no nun, he was the only person I’d ever been with in that most intimate way. At the time, I thought myself incredibly virtuous for keeping myself pure, but I panicked the instant I said “I Do.” My husband is the only person I […]

  My third month being a regular contributing writer with See Beyond Magazine & Talks! So grateful to them for the opportunity to have my writing reach a broader audience. This month’s article is about me buying a gun directly after 9-11! The story My begins on page 24. https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/2536957?__r=640293&s=w #AuraImbarus #stefanieelwood #graycemccormick #MagCloud

My twice-yearly trek to The Bronx to visit my maternal grandparent’s gravesite and my mother’s favorite aunt, relations I’ve never met in the flesh. The cemetery is 400 acres of beauty, with green rolling hills and huge rock outcroppings. There’s a gorgeous pine tree close to my grandparent’s grave, and an enormous tree by my great aunt’s burial site, both are as healthy as can be. I would’ve never thought a cemetery could be peaceful, but at 64, it’s nice to feel safe, protected and loved as if I were a child. I never want to leave. The Photo: The […]