Life has been very charged lately. Looking through my Instagram photos I can see a thread, an echo of my emotions through the images I choose to capture. The uncertainty of an experience I did not actively choose and a path from which I could not steer away. The odd mixture of terror and strength that comes from [...]
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
I can remember, from the first hint of a bump, the way people would lavish their wisdom upon me. Some days I took the words as a gift, other times they came as jarring admonitions. Safest your kids will ever be, is right there in your belly. The days are long, but the years are short. Just wait [...]
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
I used to believe that there was a formula— …step on a crack, break your mother’s back I thought that if even against my better judgement or despite my best efforts, if I indeed stepped on a crack that I could avoid the next seven and take it back. Take it back. Take back Dawn dying, take back [...]
Thursday, March 28, 2013
There are no magic words, no perfect stanza to use when a child dies. My heart is broken for a boy I never met, but who I loved through the first picture I saw of him. The son of one of my dearest childhood friends, he was familiar in a way I could never articulate. [...]
Sunday, March 3, 2013
I remember right before we got married someone said to us, “Take a moment. Forget about thanking people for coming or about when the next toast is, just take a moment. The day goes by so fast and you deserve one sliver of time for just the two of you.” I remember not understanding, but [...]
Monday, February 18, 2013
I remember practicing penny drops and dead man’s drops on the bars at Harris Elementary School in the early 80s. Before mastering either, you started with the help of a friend, they would hold your hands and do the dramatic swing chant, “One, two, three…” and the first couple you couldn’t do it, “No, wait.” [...]
Sunday, December 16, 2012
We don’t know what to do or how to do it just yet. We will always know why.
Friday, December 14, 2012
As a society we have a fundamental responsibility to protect our young. This isn’t political, it’s not parent vs non-parent—it is the basic proposition of keeping the defenseless safe. Our system is broken and kids are dying. It will take our collective willingness—our coming together despite political, social and economic differences, to fix our shared, incomprehensible reality [...]
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
She writes from waiting rooms, literal and figurative. Her updates paint a portrait that but for a few brushstrokes could be my own. There isn’t a word she shares that doesn’t make me think—sometimes it’s Eugene in the late 70s, other times it’s different track meets for different high schools and other times still it is: [...]
Friday, October 26, 2012
Lately Briar has been preoccupied with the idea of growing up. She seems convinced that by doing so, I will somehow cease to be her mom. Last night we talked, nose-to-nose about what growing up really means. I tried to explain that as she gets older she won’t want to spend time with me. “Instead of [...]
Friday, June 14, 2013
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