Losses. Fights. Scarcity. Illness. Abuse. Accidents. We don’t need Freud to tell us that no one gets through life unscathed. We merely have to live it. And I’ve lived long enough to experience how the hard parts of life help create you—shape you. Continue reading “Sitting with You in the Suckiness”
If I want to ensure that a deep sigh billows out of my son’s mouth, all I need to do is begin a conversation with, “When I was your age…” and wait a beat. Whoomp! There it is! Few things are dependable in life, but this is one of them. Continue reading ““When I Was Your Age” and 4 Other Phrases Kids LOVE to Hear”
In Ray Bradbury’s “The Sound of Thunder,” the accidental killing of a butterfly changes history. I remember after I read it as a kid thinking that whatever I touched in nature might alter the future, and my sixth grade teacher reinforced that—saying that yes, every blade of grass we touch when we walk is forever changed and what follows from that change we can’t know. Continue reading “What Happens When Your Ripples Only Flow So Far?”
Slightly over a month separates the anniversary of my dad’s death and the remembrance of his birthday. This week he would have turned 94, and I often find myself wondering what kind of “old man” he would have been. Continue reading “My Own Personal Catcher in the Rye”
Recently, a friend of mine was over the day before my family was heading out of town. As she walked in, she noticed our suitcases sitting in the foyer and said, “Oh…look at your suitcases…” I thought she was simply noticing them as something I still needed to get to—because they were all absolutely empty and waiting to be brought upstairs. Continue reading “You Are SO Together! Not.”
As a kid, when the dark clouds were angry and the TV crawl let us know of a tornado warning, I would quickly pack a bag to take with me to the basement and wait it out. In my anxious young mind, it made me feel better to have with me the things that I deemed I didn’t want to be without. Continue reading “Is Your Storm Bag Packed?”
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