What Brene Taught Me
I had the honor of meeting the smart, sassy, and gracious Brene Brown last week. If you don’t know who she is, go ahead and spend a few minutes watching her first stunning Ted talk. I’ve spent the weekend trying to sum up my experience, but it’s still bigger than I am at the moment. […]
A Sonata For My Friends
Friends have been on my mind lately. Not specific friends, but the notion of friendship. The idea of it. I’ve been reading numerous articles about friendship over the past couple of weeks; specifically, female friendships. It’s given me pause, made me think, caused me to reflect. I’ve been blessed — beyond blessed — to have […]
Giving Thanks
I cannot deny that these past two years have been hard. Soul-crushing, fetal-position hard at times. Let me begin by saying this, by owning this: I know that if I threw my problems into a pile with all the other problems of the world, I’d grab mine back as quickly as I could. I know […]
NO!
One of my very favorite songs to listen to when the kids were younger was the catchy “They Might Be Giants” tune, “NO!” It opens with this: “No is no. No is always no. If they say no, it means a thousand times no.” Pretty good preparation for life, methinks. We face a lot of […]
Strong Song
It was gorgeous outside yesterday, sun peeking through the clouds, blue sky that went on forever, temperatures in the high 60s. And after a little debacle involving work, I needed to clear my head. Lunch time run, indeed. Chris was in meetings all day, teaching class that evening. I strapped on my Road ID and […]
About Face, Forward March
And so, in this crazy place we call life, everything can — and does — turn on a dime. Including my pity party. It’s a bit of a shame, really, to end it so abruptly. I put a lot of time and effort and tears into it. But I’ve been blessed this weekend to spend […]
The Year of Being
365 days. That’s a lot of time. Time to think, time to reflect, time to laugh, to cry, to fall to your knees, to dust yourself off and start anew. It’s a great many sunrises and sunsets, dinners and lunches, books checked off the “must read” list, novels written and edited. It’s one more school […]
Choking Artie
Once upon a time, a youngish 40-something willingly agreed to support her smart, sassy husband in his career endeavors, sold the house they built together and thought they’d live in forever, packed up the kids, medicated the canines, and moved to StarkVegas, MS — home of armadillo roadkill and summer air so thick you can […]
All Kinds of Mothers
Mother’s Day is such a funny little celebration. Overpriced flowers, candies, brunches, matching kid outfits — all in honor of the one who birthed us. It’s a commonality we children carry… like birth, like death, there are inevitable things we share in the connectedness of our existence. Each of us has a mother. Perhaps we […]
Meeting Annie
Did you guys know I was a finalist in the Notes & Words essay contest? Oh, I’ve mentioned it a couple of times? I wanted to make sure you’d heard. You know, just in case you’d been struck by a meteor and were rendered unable to read my ad nauseum Facebook updates. This past weekend, […]