Happy Holidays. (Or Not.)
Society says we should be jolly and happy and thankful and joy-filled during these days. Commercials tell us to feel the magic and the wonder. But we don’t all feel it. Some of us feel hollowed out. Some of us feel lonely. Some of us feel the weight of having a double-digit bank account or mounting credit card bills. Some of us watch cheesy holiday movies and feel that we’re not enough, that we don’t measure up.
Some of those people are me. Some might be you.
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.
Are You Enough?
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 […]
For Reals
My 13-year-old daughter has a vernacular all her own. She “feels all the feels” and validates her experiences because they’re “for reals.” She punctuates her sentences with acronyms and wild hand gestures and dramatic facial expressions. When she trips on the sidewalk, she asks, “How do you walk?” That particular phrasing carries over into everything […]
Better Than It Needed To Be
From an outsider’s view point, it was a recipe for disaster. Three families: two who hadn’t seen each other for over three years, two who began the week as strangers. I was the common denominator, the tiny overlap of our Venn diagram, bringing together my IU roommate and her kids with an old Zionsville friend […]
The Business of Being Human
I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon. Sure, I love her words and her wit and her candor, but I wasn’t going to gush about it and fall all over myself and sing her praises. Why? I don’t know. Pride? Envy? Probably both. Probably, shamefully, more of the […]
Hand in Hand
On Friday morning, I was talking to Chris about my upcoming eye surgery. Worrying a little about the actual procedure, imagining the needle coming straight toward my eye, thinking about my inability to look away. “If the doctors mess the surgery up,” George asked in between Cheerios bites, “will you have to wear an eye […]
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 Common Good
I’m not what you’d call a “political” person. So it makes me a bit uneasy to post about a “political” topic, but as a writer, when the muse calls… it’s best not to let that one go to voice mail. I watched with wonder yesterday as my Facebook friends split before my eyes… half to […]
Note to Self
“CBS This Morning” kicked off its new series “Note to Self” yesterday morning with the beautiful 83-year-old soul, Maya Angelou, whose words always enfold me in comfort and grace. It’s like liquid sunshine, that voice. I love CBS’s new project, and I love Maya Angelou, and I was inspired to write my own letter to […]