If I were eleven, I would smell like sweat and sunscreen. I would live in a neighborhood with a windy road and a hill so I could ride my bike, the blue one with the peeling sticker, and never get bored. My bike would have a broken kickstand. I’d have to lay it near the…
We have not taken a trip with our adult children in years. It’s often difficult to agree on a destination or coordinate calendars. When children have their own lives, it is a challenge. But, after a few weeks of wrangling, we did it. We planned a family trip to Costa Rica. Three different areas: cloud…
Jack has anxiety. He’s afraid of other dogs, which if I let it get to me, is sad. He is excluded from the raucous dog club. He doesn’t sniff butts or tangle leases with his friends. Instead, he is visibly distressed when he is around other dogs. After lots of work, he is better. He…
A boy lost his father when he was a child. To work, compromise, and a dash of selfish. The boy cried. A young man lost his father when he was struggling. To indifference, distraction, and lies. The young man yelled. A man lost his father unexpectedly. To the invisible, the invasive, and neglect. The man…
Our peach, plum, and apricot trees survived their second summer. The green of their leaves is battling it out with the encroaching brown, and the cutter moths have done some damage, but the trees have officially made it. They are growing, alive, and in a few weeks, they will thrive, insects and triple-digit temperatures at bay.…
Seven months. Articles and books talk about this “transition,” from raising children to parenting around the edges, but it seems to be different for everyone. Every child. When my first daughter went off to make her own life, I was a bit lost, and my heart ached, but I was raising two other people. Distraction…
The goal was to write a blog post once a week and I failed. No lives were taken, no money lost. Just a mental game I played with myself that didn’t work out. Oh well, there’s always next week to get it right. My daughter turns twenty-four on Saturday. She’s at that age where…
My daughter is in London on a school trip. She comes home tomorrow. It was Saturday evening before I’d heard the news of the London Bridge attack. We had already received an email from her chaperone about the fun they’d had that day and that they were back in their hotel room. I called her…
When I was young, my mom and I moved to New York to take care of my Nannie who had breast cancer. My Nan fought like hell, and we spent a good bit of time in Bronxville. We lived in a one-bedroom apartment, which was part of a big yellow house that had four or…
