Yesterday was my birthday. It was a good one overall. West-coast loved ones phoned. Mom sent me flowers, a rare luxury these days. My in-laws sent me a cool hand-crafted bracelet, bought at a jewelry shop in their cute little California town. And my husband. He presented me with the best gift [...]
Filed under: family, holidays, marriage | 14 Comments »
So…ours was not your typical American Memorial Day celebration. It consisted, most notably, of my son burying a snake that our neighbors killed. The “murder” of this creature was a great tragedy to my child. He could not let it go until he had a chance to bury the fallen. It [...]
Filed under: children, creative non-fiction, family, fear, grief, holidays, parenting, war | 4 Comments »
For a while now, I’ve been puzzled by a monument at the soccer field where my son practices. I (soccer mom that I am!) often pull into the parking spot right in front of this rock with a plate commemorating an auspicious occasion. Recently, however, I began to think more deeply about this monument….
So what [...]
Filed under: creative non-fiction, good books, parenting, politics, travel writing | 9 Comments »
As requested by struggling writer, I am posting about my son’s stuffed animal, Hobbes, today. Here is a picture of him (Hobbes, not struggling writer!) in the back seat, where I tossed him Tuesday when I was rushing to go see vomit-boy at overnight camp. Since I never actually made it to camp (see [...]
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Tues. at 9 a.m. the phone rings, and it’s my son’s teacher, Mr. S. Always a lump in the throat when your kid’s teacher calls, right? Well, in this case, my son is away at overnight camp all week, so my heart leaped into my throat big time.
Turns out that my son [...]
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This weekend my friend gave me some advice. Breathe. She said breathe in and then out and then in again and out, and just do that on and on for five minutes. Hmm. Breathing is easy, right?
Turns out there are different ways to do this…
(1) While you breathe in, say in your [...]
Filed under: fear, health, women | 2 Comments »
Just got back yesterday afternoon from our annual all-church retreat to Ferry Beach, on the southern coast of Maine. About 250 people usually come from our Unitarian Universalist church to this yearly weekend away. It’s always held on Mother’s Day weekend, and pretty much every year my husband stays home and let’s us have [...]
Filed under: children, creative non-fiction, family, holidays, marriage, parenting, religion, travel, weather | 3 Comments »
My son is not particularly tough. I love him to pieces. He’s just not one of those kids, though, that engages in physical activity with no eye to personal safety. He has always been cautious (thank goodness!) And though he has played soccer now for six of his ten and a [...]
Filed under: children, creative non-fiction, family, fear, health, parenting | 8 Comments »
It’s that time of year at school when the voluminous mounds of lost and found items are presented on a couple of tables in the hallway for parents to sift through in our spare hours.
Ah, here is the mysteriously disappearing royal blue windbreaker that simply vanished out of my son’s locker one day. Did it [...]
Filed under: children, creative non-fiction, education, family, parenting | No Comments »
