real, raw motherhood
Last night, half asleep, I heard our dog pacing in her crate. Unusual behavior for her. I got up and opened her door. She bolted out and circled around me in a frenzy, making it difficult to slip her collar on and clip her leash. Finally, we hurried down the stairs. As soon as we…
“Whenever I go on a ride, I’m always thinking of what’s wrong with the thing and how it can be improved.” Walt Disney Attention to detail and a drive for constant improvement undoubtedly worked well for Mr Disney. In this one short sentence, he is teaching us to: Desire for change is the seed that…
I signed up as a chaperone for my daughter’s most recent camping trip. One evening, I was making my way to the restrooms by tiptoeing behind a group of teenage boys when one of them interjected in my direction: “if you kill yourself, do you go to hell or heaven?” I am rarely speechless but…
We’ve been together more years than I had been alive when we first met. 25 years since I met my American star! A quarter of a century. Two and half decades. 300 months. By any time measuring standards, it’s been a while! I was 21 on that fateful June, 11th, 1997 and still 21 when…
Close to 20% of the population in the USA is diagnosed with depression. If you’re standing with 4 other people, chances are at least one is depressed. Assuming it’s not you, can you tell who? My guess is that you can’t. I am very lively. I easily strike up a conversation. I smile a lot.…
My husband always cites my ability to change as my superpower. How ironic that when we navigated the ups and downs of our first years of marriage, I kept proclaiming: “This is who I am! I can’t change!” There’s no mystery as to why I thought that. I had been raised in a culture that…
September 29, 2021 Dear Mrs. B R: Mahalo for contacting me with your opposition to vaccination requirements and restrictions. Let me begin by stressing that I do not support forced vaccinations and am not aware of any efforts by the federal government to force citizens to get vaccinated against their will. However, I do believe…
“With the shutdown of the port, all Boston business came to a halt. All work stopped. Half the people of Boston- some 7,000- went jobless. Soon they would not even be allowed to fish in their own waters.” Two if by Sea by Leonard Everett Fisher I was reading this book about the American Revolution…
I just finished listening to Wuthering Heights, having read it only once before, in French, when I was no more than 17 years old. I remembered it as one of my favorite novels but had no recollection whatsoever of the story or its characters. It was with great curiosity that I returned to the Heights…
Today is my last day as a 44 year old. The COVID 19 global pandemic has defined this past year. Quarantines. Social distancing. Masks. Trying to stay healthy. Trying to stay alive. Hoping that those you love will too. So many people did die. Some I knew: my friend’s father; a long time student of our…