Quiet
The topic of introversion has surfaced before on this blog. I’ve always been an introvert, and sadly, when I was young, no one quite understood what that meant. Not my parents. Not my sisters. Not my friends. “She’s just quiet,” they’d say. “She’s just shy.” My lack of willing conversation went far beyond being…
Read MoreAdulting
Last week, Talia called: Blue, her 2006 Honda Pilot, needed help. As it turns out, Blue needed more than help; it needed an overhaul. And since the car was twenty years old, we decided that pouring thousands of dollars into Blue didn’t make sense. Which meant that Talia needed to do a few things as…
Read MoreMonday, Monday
Like many folks, Mondays are hard for me, and they always have been. To be fair, Sundays are also difficult, mainly because my flavor of anxiety would fall into the “anticipatory anxiety” category, which is often called “future tripping.” Yes, I have the uncanny talent to spiral about events that haven’t even happened yet,…
Read MoreNew Year, New You
With the start of a new year comes a long-awaited dream come true: I FINALLY got my nose pierced. While the plan is to have a small hoop on my right nostril, for the next six months, I have to live with a small stud, which I chose with the kids in mind. Four little…
Read MoreObserving with Attention: An Interview with Rosanna Staffa
Each and every author featured in this series has taught me something, and the same can be said for author Rosanna Staffa. In fact, I’ve read this interview several times, and I keep going back to certain sentences, marveling at the fluidity and grace with which Rosanna answers my questions. Rosanna honed her craft in…
Read MoreTwenty-One Reasons
Dear Aaron. Every year, these birthday letters get more difficult to write because I feel like I’m repeating myself. But then I remind myself that parents are supposed to repeat themselves, just as children are supposed to roll their eyes at us, and maybe, just maybe, you won’t mind hearing, again, how much I love…
Read MoreEveryone Is Worthy: An Interview with Annette Nauraine
Every once in a while I put a request online for interview subjects. Author Annette Nauraine heeded the call, and though I’ve never met her in real life, I love how much energy comes across Annette’s emails, answers, and author photo. “Hi, I’m so happy to connect with you and your readers,” she said, and…
Read MoreI Folded Clothes as my Mother Lay Dying
I folded clothes as my mother lay dying— the shirts she once would have pressed, the socks that once knew her careful hands. Outside, the maple trees shed their leaves like silent confessions. I stacked her sweaters in trembling towers, soft monuments to warmth. Each crease a small surrender, each fold a way of saying…
Read MoreThe Power of Place: An Interview with Erin Van Rheenen
Author Erin Van Rheenen writes on her website that “[her] life has been an effort to see the beauty in being upended.” Considering how much life upends everyone on a (sometimes) daily basis, her outlook intrigues me. And so does her debut novel, You Could Be Happy Here, which is “a story of identity, belonging,…
Read MoreThis Is Fifty-Two
Comfortable shoes. Worn-in jeans. Over-sized sweaters. Rage. Four-thirty in the morning wake-ups from a feline friend. Low-carbohydrate eating. Achy hips and other joints. Coffee shop chats with the bitches. Long, warm hugs from the kids. Pretty Little Liars. Candles and soap. Warm showers. Rage. Cold showers. Itchy skin and kneecaps. Wild, witchy hair. Glasses perched…
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