Every day, it becomes a little bit clearer just how little I know – as a parent, as a writer, as a woman. Just when I think I might have things figured out, the universe decides to throw me a curve ball and shake things up a bit. And lest…
It seems that the sky is, in fact, falling. Well, not necessarily the sky, but the ceiling. To be specific, the ceiling in our living room. The ceiling in our living room is falling. This is, as you might have guessed, not a good thing. Our sky-is-falling debacle started a…
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. — Mary Oliver, from “Wild Geese” In March, our family…
“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’” — Kurt Vonnegut Years ago I used to work in a big office building in downtown Chicago. Most weekday mornings, I…
“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.” — Frederick Buechner Sometimes I imagine that there is a place where things are clean and new. A place with straight lines, clear answers, and predictability; a place that sparkles and shines. A place where well-manicured people…
A couple of weeks ago, the boys and I spent some time gathering up old books for a used book drive. For the better part of an hour, we sorted and organized, deciding which books to keep and which to put in the cardboard donation box. After we had filled…