A few days after my birthday, my son asked how I feel about turning forty. I wanted to tell him the truth without it sounding like I’m spiraling into a mid-life crisis, or worse, like I’m whining. Both of which might be true. I told him forty feels good, but when I look back over the past twenty or so…
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Snapshots of a Snow Day
I can hear the two youngest through the ice-cold window panes. They shout something or other into the muffle of snow, their words bright spots of color against a backdrop of quiet white. The oldest is over it–the cold, the white, the endless storm. She comes out of her room for chocolate chip pancakes. That is all. The dog curls…
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On Turning Forty and a Few Things I Learned Along the Way
I grew up three turns and around the bend from a tiny, local zoo. I wrote a little about it here. It housed your standard petting zoo critters, along with a strange array of everyday animals like raccoons and owls, in cages close to water buffalo enclosures or your scary “big cat”. As a tween, I volunteered at the zoo…
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Practice, Excellence, and Wild Abandon
They entered from the back and walked the length of the two aisles, he with the suona (Chinese horn) and she with the gaita (Galician bagpipes). She passed closest to me, swishing in her full, gold skirt with the gaita beneath her left arm. The tassles and fringe on the instrument swung with her movement, and the notes clung to…
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A Decade of Delight
My husband came in the door, and within a few minutes of catching up, I told him I was probably, almost definitely, with some degree of certainty going to quit writing. And also–if we’re talking about life changes–when I drove down the road earlier in the morning, the thought “We need to move” popped into my head most distinctly. I…
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