This is the question forefront on my mind because overnight my children have crossed the threshold from well, children to full-fledged tweens. I wrote about this in a prior post, “Fragments of A Life.” But here I am writing about the same subject because it’s almost as if last week’s words spawned amorphous little people whose behaviors are strikingly unfamiliar.
Read more...The title of this post is drawn from a chapter in my memoir. At the time, the events I described were specific, yet now the idea of fragments seems to fit the whole of my life.
Read more...What do you make of this scenario? In the midst of theKaren Hornbostel Memorial Time Trial Series at Cherry Creek State Park, my 10 year-old son hopped off his bike to gulp some water.
Read more...I completed my graduate thesis last week – a crowning achievement (and the reason for my online absence). Readers know that I’ll earn my MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College this summer. As it happens, my thesis is the entire draft of Both Sides Now, my memoir. Lucky me. I didn’t have to finish the book, but I needed to. I needed to prove to myself that I could write my story, line by line, page after page, part by part, until I had accomplished the following: getting it all down on paper, selecting the moments and shaping it so that the experience could be shared. In this way the written word allows others to reflect upon their own stories of loss and renewal.
Read more...Have you heard about how police stopped Batman in Silver Spring, Md. late last month? That’s right. Batman. They pulled him over because his license plate featured only the Batman symbol, no numbers. He was driving a black Lamborghini and dressed in full black and yellow leather Batman attire. “Send me Robin,” the police officer is reported to have said over the radio.
Read more...Many of us are feeling the thaw of winter and the early heat of spring. It’s a glorious time of year, albeit a charged one. Growth spurts, spring cleaning, bikes that need maintenance, gardens that need pruning, multiple school projects, the season of birthdays. And for basketball fans…March Madness, NBA trades and the upcoming playoffs and finals. Can you feel the energy?
Read more...What do you make of the following unrelated events?
My 10-year-old daughter wakes up with a fever and hacking cough. Even she knows she’s sick, and yet she demands she go to school. She bawls. She whines. She throws her body on the sofa. “I have to go to school.” Cough. Cough. “You don’t understand, I HAVE to go to school!”
Read more...It’s 3:58 a.m. and I wake in a startled state.
Did I forget the day? How could I let this slip?
I’m not thinking clearly at this ungodly hour so I begin to track back. He died in February, toward the end of the month. Last Tuesday was Valentine’s Day. I count the days that follow on my fingers until I land on today, February 20.
I am so relieved because I have not missed the day my first husband, Brett, died. It’s tomorrow, February 21, which is the eight-year anniversary.
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