Leaving 5th grade is about him. A son. In a new summer. Promoting a new era. Beginning the birth of a Gen Z-er. Leaving for him is freedom. Walking home alone. Gathering in friend clusters around the frisbee toss. Around the Magic draft. Around the smartphone. Around the texts. Around the lucky ones allowed Fortnite. Leaving for him [...]
The morning wind in the California high desert sends little slices of ice through your pores. A ruby red taffeta mini skirt dips and dives on the oak hanger. “Hi sweetie-the wind blows everything around here” a voice spills out from behind the red fabric of the storefront. A green faux fur hat perches atop her [...]
Stepping down into the hallway there is a runway of excitement. There are spring flowers enrobed in butcher paper casually strewn on park benches. The large cardboard signs read ‘L’amour est dans l’air’ and ‘La vie est une fleur dont l’amour est le miel’ while men in tuxes and women in a range of Seattle formal [...]
I'm sandwiched between two men. Middle seat, waiting for the pushback tug to be fixed for plane #3 in line for take off. I am plane #4. Thirty, forty-five, sixty minutes on the tarmac and finally we are in the air. To my right is Andrew. He laughs and looks up. "Our president is advocating for [...]
This is Gratitude. It is a New Year. Thank. You. Each. Love is not a command. Love is a celebration. Thank you for celebrating the unspeakable gift of existence with me.
Blue is the color of the tarp I would live under with the three children. I imagine it to be a hybrid of cobalt and robin’s egg –pantone 641C -fringed with encased dirt from the muddy camp of last week. I step into the makeshift alley under the bridge paralleling the main highway. The tarp trembles [...]
I come from two generations of eastern European matriarchs. I am the third in a line of drivingly independent women who dig their elbows into the post refugee camp production of building a life. It is survival of the fittest, with mitochondria level engagement. And for this you need an intelligent selection of shoes. Sturdy shoes [...]
We are human beings. We function from a place of fear or attachment. Fear--- “Next week, my husband is going back to work and I will be alone for the first time with the baby. I’m scared” says the Assistant Director of a premier onsite childcare center for a world-renowned cancer research institute. She is intelligent, [...]
The French have a word specifically for the endless street walking; the perfect act of absorbing the beauty and energy of the city. La Flanerie which literally means 'To wander the streets of Paris.' Traveling for five days, my son and I walked between 8-10 miles a day through hidden passages, Himalayan castles and labyrinthian gardens. The [...]
Parenting =Creating. There. I said it. Parenting is the daily act of observing, sculpting and refining a work in progress. Only it is not your work. So you must be particularly adroit at balancing tai chi with sprint racing; at reflecting genius and modulating between joy and depression. It involves feeling deeply and batting resistance every [...]
