Bookends: October 2025
Autumn in Southern California always feels a little like spring in New England to me. Here, instead of purple crocuses pushing up through the grimy snow, the first of the … Continue reading Bookends: October 2025
Category: Writing
Bookends: September 2025
My favorite and most impactful read from September was Emotional Labor by Rose Hackman, followed at a close second by The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai, although … Continue reading Bookends: September 2025
Bookends: August 2025
August found me, quite by accident, reading several books dealing with the period of time immediately before and during the Second World War or during a fictional period several years … Continue reading Bookends: August 2025
On Mastery
New! Prefer to listen to this article? Check out the audio at the bottom of the post. Blame being labeled “gifted” as a child or just being deficient in industriousness, … Continue reading On Mastery
Telling Our Own Stories: Our Children and Internet Privacy
When I was pregnant with my daughter, I had a private blog. Writing has long been my preferred means of communication, and blogging felt like a natural way to chronicle … Continue reading Telling Our Own Stories: Our Children and Internet Privacy
Breaking All the Rules
As I drove away from the open field where I left my progeny for day camp, I wondered what I should do with my two and half hours sans enfants. … Continue reading Breaking All the Rules
Dreams vs Reality, or What Yeats and I Have in Common (sort of)
Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: Nine … Continue reading Dreams vs Reality, or What Yeats and I Have in Common (sort of)
Why I Didn’t Answer When You Called
The reasons I will tell you: I was exercising. I was in the bathroom. I forgot to charge my phone. We had guests over. You just missed me. The reasons I … Continue reading Why I Didn’t Answer When You Called
Your Morning Walk: A Guided Tour
Grab your fleece—New England mornings are still chilly in May—and begin your walk at the oldest house in the neighborhood. This split-level made its debut just months before JFK was shot, … Continue reading Your Morning Walk: A Guided Tour
Carolina Dreaming
I walk along the red clay path past white dogwood blooms. My son spots a black and orange millipede. We stop to watch it cross the path and see a second … Continue reading Carolina Dreaming
A Birth in Fifty Words
When my sobs subsided I steeled myself, and we closed the door on the birth tub and our home birth and entered a world of monitors and medications, threats and confusion. The … Continue reading A Birth in Fifty Words
Origins
When I was four, after my brother Josh’s death but before my sister was born, I had a dream that a giant dog was running around our San Diego house. … Continue reading Origins
Imperfect Happiness 