the beauty of an ordinary life
I made school lunch for the last time, ever. "This is the last time I'm ever going to make lunch for you to take to school," I said to my daughter, as I folded a chicken and rice burrito and wrapped it up tight. "You're free!" she whooped. "Aren't you glad?" Seven years ago, I … Continue reading Something about that list from the working mother battlefield.
In 2016 the Centers for Disease Control released a technical package/toolkit for preventing child abuse and neglect. If you missed that bit of news, back in 2016, as I did, it's probably because 2016 was, in the lightest and most polite description, a crazy year. I'll go on a limb here and suggest something that … Continue reading Something about children.
I was at a party recently to celebrate a friend’s milestone birthday. It was a wonderful, multi-generational gathering of adults and children of all ages, and being with them in person, during this COVID reprieve, was a true joy. One of the guests was a mother who had a toddler with her. The child was … Continue reading Something about impermanence.
"This could be her last Christmas," my daughter said, speaking about the dog -- one of our dogs -- last Christmas, in 2020, the first pandemic Christmas. Another of our dogs had died earlier in the year, in mid-March before everything shut down. He, the one who died, and she, the one who remained behind, … Continue reading Thoughts go astray.
Yes, every post in January will be about food and cooking. "Mom," my daughter said, one night a few weeks ago. "My friend made this dish, and it was really good, and I think you've made it before, and I didn't think I liked it then but now I do." What was this magic dish, … Continue reading Sunday supper potatoes.
The focal point for the day's work was "Wilson," a hospital glove that my husband inflated like a balloon and decorated with a Sharpie marker so it looked like a happy face. The glove's name came from the movie Cast Away, which we'd watched over Labor Day weekend, nestled with the dogs on our green-striped … Continue reading Something laborious.
A writer I know was in her 50s when she discovered that her childhood was a lie. She learned the truth by accident, and the discovery knocked her off kilter, partly because it was traumatic and mostly because the truth came out right as she was starting to reconcile an already complicated personal history by … Continue reading Something about stories.
The only (relatively) important point here is this one: Peace is an inside job. If you're just scrolling through and see only the first line because you've got a busy day and don't have time to read more, then you're all set, with just that first line. If you're here for a little while longer, … Continue reading Something peaceful.
jenny's lark 