There are two sets of graduation caps and gowns laying on my credenza right now. They were casually slung there, still in their plastic packaging, by my two high school senior daughters on the days they’d been given them, just before they breezed...
I have held many things in my life. Holding things is a large part of a mother’s job description. I have held cumbersome bucket seats, propped on one hip, as I tried to carry both grocery bags and the baby. I have held books that have tried and...
My granddaughter, Mavis, is obsessed with being outside; With rocks and dirt, specifically. She simply cannot get enough. At the slightest suggestion of going outside, she is bringing every shoe in the house to every person, demanding their...
The photographer asked if I had had a chance yet to look at the pictures she had sent. I didn’t know that they had come. I sat holding my breath as I opened the gallery on my phone, but at 10 minutes in, the dam was in danger of rupturing. My whole...
It starts from the time they are born: A self-imposed, invisible stop-watch, pushing you to jump from phase to phase with barely a breath. When they are newborns, you want them to balance their heads, roll over, and sit up. Before they even crawl...
Palm Sunday: The start of Holy Week in Christian circles. We went out through the redwood forest to the same church we were married in to hear my mom sing songs with the choir that I had heard since my head only reached her waistband. The building...
Today was grey and overcast. Rain was softly spitting. I carried my granddaughter, Mavis, outside for a minute as we ran between her house and mine, and the moments in it had us both giggling, and her squinting with her entire face. Â Once inside...
At the front of our house, right under the main window, years ago we planted an Aeonium succulent that has grown well, and has become quite tall. It became clear over the years by the way that it grew and spread that where we had planted it was the...
My most dramatic child, my baby, just had surgery to remove her wisdom teeth this week. We all knew it was about to be a whole thing. We talked about it in low tones, and looked to be sure she wasn’t listening before we whispered about it in the...
There were multiple new girls that showed up to try out at soccer practice yesterday. Even if I hadn’t known they were the new ones, I could have recognized them by the way they stood on the sidelines with their big eyes, fiddling with their shirt...