Love and Gratitude

When I was younger, I believed a family was easy to define: A mother, a father, the children, a pet or two. I spent most of my life building that kind of family—the kind that had been modeled to me, the kind that I read about in my beloved books.

Gratitude

Dear Diary, I’ve been thinking about my big sister a lot lately. About her waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. About how she couldn’t find her way back to her bed because there was a tumor compromising her brain. About how that fucking tumor would take her away […]

The Promises We Make

Cards

It’s the official week to be thankful (although, really, we should be living in gratitude all the time, yes?), and I’ve been thinking a lot about the past few years. I’ve gone through many changes, personal, professional, emotional, familial. And in general, life is getting a little easier day by day as I learn to […]

A Different Narrative

Sunrise

I am overcome. Your notes, your texts, your calls, your stories. There are so many. So very many. For five days and nights now, I have been enveloped in love and light. I have also been privy to so many of your stories of “Me, too.” My heart is lifted, my heart is heavy. But […]

Are You Enough?

Mary Claire Striking a Pose

A while back, I stumbled upon the beautiful Jennifer Pastiloff. It seemed every other post I saw was about her, her Manifest-Station site, or one of her writing/yoga retreats. I was drawn to her positivity, her exuberance, her spirit, and that gorgeous mane of hair. She published a couple of my incredibly personal pieces on […]

Caring for Ourselves Looks a Lot Like Caring for Others

The Essence of Life

“Hello… is it me you’re looking for? Cause I wonder where you are, and I wonder what you do…” That’s one of my favorite cheesiest-of-the-cheesy love songs. Lionel was an 80s fixture for me, for sure. Now that song will be stuck in your head all day. “And I want to tell you so much… […]

Full of Grate

George at the Movies

The season of gratitude is upon us. I’ve been reading the daily Facebook posts. Some may find them wearing, but I enjoy the reminder to look at life through a different lens — sometimes even one that’s rose-colored. Ultimately, this family has so much — healthy kids, happy marriage, squirrel-chasing dogs, a roof over our […]

Mother Lode

Katrina and Gus

He is fourteen now. It is surreal to me, this knowledge. That he is fourteen years old in the shadow of the long-ago unspoken fear that he might not even see fourteen days is almost too much to consider. If I think about it for long, my breath grows short and my heart skips and […]

Giving Thanks

Gus Holding a Heart-Shaped Rock

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 […]

In the Middle

Sidebar: This entry was actually written last Tuesday. I forgot to post it. If that isn’t a window into my ragged, disjointed soul right now, I’m not sure what is. Today was one of those days. You know the kind — emphasis on “those,” complete with eye-rolling and audible sighing. We all have them. I […]