I have never been to Paris. Well, unless you count that one really stressful layover at Charles de Gaulle Airport last summer. Which I don’t. And yet. My heart sunk when I heard the news on Friday afternoon. Yours did too, I’m sure. By now you’ve seen the news. You’ve…
Author’s Note: This essay was written more than a year ago, the situation described happened over two years ago, and since then the scars have continued to fade. It is a long process, but I have found the road to healing and is filled with love and light. If you…
If there is one piece of advice that I have heard more than any others, it is this: Develop a thick skin. I’ve heard it from family members, friends, fellow writers, and editors. A thick skin, it seems, is the quintessential job requirement for a writer, especially those of us…
Soak it up, the radio DJ told me yesterday afternoon while I drove home after dropping Teddy off at school. The weather was warm and lovely and delicious, a rare treat for November in Chicago. Soak it up, she said. We’ll miss this weather in a few months. After I pulled…
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…
My grandparents raised their family in a tiny, brick bungalow on the west side of Milwaukee. The size of the house was inversely proportionate to the size of their family, something that by today’s standards seems to not only defy the laws of comfort, but of logic as well. Yet,…