A few years ago, I wrote an essay about smashing windows. Not actual windows. But the figurative windows that distort the ways that I feel about myself, the ways I feel about the world. I called it Frosted Window Syndrome, or the never-ending battle so many of us fight just…
“What am I doing?” I stand in the middle of the kitchen and ask this question aloud, even though there is no one else in the house aside from the dogs. My coat is on, phone in hand, and the dogs stare at me. What the hell was I…
Author’s Note: I have had a version of this post – originally an essay – on my computer for weeks. While I worked to find the right home for it, I continued editing and tweaking. I submitted to various publications, asked writer friends for advice, and edited some more. Something…
We’re moving into the season of the two G’s — gratitude and giving — and I recently read two articles that, separately, talked about both. The first, an op-ed in The New York Times, discussed the benefits of giving thanks even if we aren’t feeling very grateful. “For many people,…
I am not an overly sentimental person. Emotional? Yes. Dramatic. You bet. But sentimental? Not particularly. I didn’t keep a pregnancy journal. I don’t have locks of my kids’ hair tucked away in their baby books. I don’t swoon over my children’s art projects. And the markings on their height…
I have a list of parenting regrets about a mile long. Wasting money on an expensive rocking chair and signing my three-year-old up for soccer, for instance. But one thing I don’t regret, however, is the excessive photo taking—and photo sharing—during my son’s first year. Though I’m no shutterbug by…