I spent the month of October in pain. First an injury, and then an illness, each of which is particularly painful in their individual categories. Not at all fun. I realized how little physical pain I’ve had in my life, with gratitude and also guilt – how could I not have appreciate all those many, [...]
Last night I folded up a big Target box and put it in the recycling bin. The box was covered in sharpie words and crayon drawings, and has been a major focus of this house for several days. As I took it out, noticing that the air is positively swampy with spring as I did [...]
One of my friends from business school lost a brother in 9/11. My friend, his wife, and the rest of his large family started a foundation in their brother’s name. On Sunday I wore a tee-shirt from one of their fundraisers to go running. I didn’t have time to shower when I got back, and [...]
Grace, Whit and I went to Walden today. Over the years I have been there often, pulled by something beyond me, and I always go in the winter. I like it empty and quiet. I like to be the only person (people) there. I like it when I can feel the spirituality crackling in the [...]
I’ve been thinking an awful lot about achievement, and the Race to Nowhere, and the ways we hide from our lives. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about how complicated it gets when the ways you hide from your life are applauded by the world. For me this has mostly been true: whether it’s running or studying [...]
Matt was away this weekend, and Grace and Whit and I faced the luxury of an almost entirely empty Sunday. I knew I wanted to do something adventurous, and a few days ago I signed the three of us up for trapeze school. Trapeze school. One of my friends texted and asked if we were [...]
Last week I read Amy at Never True Tales’ words on The Witching Years. She writes about the years that her children were young, with a combination of regret, loss, gratitude and wonder that I recognize intimately. It’s clearer here, on the other side. In the light. With kids who brush their own teeth and [...]
I saw The Race to Nowhere last week. I was tremendously moved by it. I’m not sure I know what to do, precisely, with my ever-stronger sense of how I want to parent my kids. There is a doctor of adolescent medicine in the film who says even he, a specialist who writes books about [...]
Everyday life is a practice and a poem. These words came to me on Friday in a yoga class. My first yoga class in more months than I can count. My body remembered the poses like some deeply known but forgotten language. My mind ran and ran, occasionally settling into a thought, and this one [...]
Amazing Grace (John Newton) Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now I see. T’was Grace that taught my heart to fear. And Grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear The hour I first believed. Through [...]
