The Fortuitous Journey of My Life: a Reflection
I recently had the privilege and pleasure of returning to the library I visited every Saturday as a kid. My mom is the library director there, and she asked me to do an author event. I readily agreed. With a crowd of old school friends, old teachers, and strangers, I...
On the Missing Chairs at Thanksgiving: an Essay
In a few days some of my favorite people will gather around my living room table, and we will talk over turkey and heap a plate with mashed potatoes and gravy and pretend we’re trying to decide between apple or chocolate pie when we know we’ve already planned to take...
On the Firstborn Son: an Essay
I watch my boy from where I sit, his back curved a bit while his head hangs over the Star Wars book he’s reading, and I marvel at how his brow is missing the soft spot between eye and forehead, how his face has thinned out of the baby cheeks and chin, how his mouth...
What You Do is Not Who You Are: a Discussion
He was playing a video game, for his designated technology time, but he was crying. I gave him a few minutes, thought maybe it would die down and he would master the game and the whine-crying would cease. But it continued. I was trying to read a book about the...
Celebrating Love, Embracing Love, Putting on Love: It’s All About Love
My love month is October. This is the month when I celebrate walking down the aisle in an old historical church situated inside a lovely wood near a lake, at the end of which was the man I loved. The evening of October 11, 2003, was the night when my husband and I...
On Mothering: an Essay
She turns sixty this week. I have known her for just more than half of those years, and in the same way she has watched me grow from infant to toddler to teenager to adult with infants and toddlers of my own, so I have watched her grow. I have watched those...
In Praise of Libraries: a Poem
When I was a little girl, my mother would take me to the library every week. We lived in a tiny town, with little else to do. These days were my favorites. I’d run my hand along the old book spines, taking my time choosing the ones that I would carry home with me, the...
On Believing in Yourself: an Examination
One of the most difficult and yet important pieces of the writer life is believing in yourself and believing in your work. I have a book that just launched into the world (two days ago, to be exact). This is my first traditionally published book (but certainly not my...
Keeping a Tender Heart and a Fierce Constitution: a Musing
The other night, after kids had been put to bed and Husband and I finally had a moment to ourselves, we found ourselves circling my latest burden, trying not to pinpoint it directly (it felt a little dangerous). We talked around the message I feel I have been given to...
On Parenting a Spirited Child: an Essay
We walk into the school, turning the corner down toward his classroom, and I can feel the tension and sadness pulsing through his hand in mine. When I turn to him for this morning goodbye, his pupils are so large his eyes look nearly black. By this time next week, my...