The Sun Magazine, Sy Syfransky-Editor

This magazine is responsible for making me want to keep writing. Each month I get this magazine and within hours, I’ve read it nearly cover to cover. I’ve met Sy, and several authors including Sparrow and Alison Leuterman. Both the magazine and the people who write for it convey a commitment to mindfulness in […]

Is there no market for joy?

Word has it, parent blogging is dead. This might be a good thing for me because I not sarcastic, ironic, or depressed enough to be a big-hitting, angst-driven, new-mommy blogger. I have, on occasion irritated people with my good nature and exuberance for life. Which is not to say that I’m a total Pollyanna. I’ve […]

Giggling weasel

Picture a wet weasel. Small, furry, hot, wet. Now picture it wrapped around your neck on a day with 90 %humidity. Then picture the weasel clawing you. That’s what it felt like to carry Bean about yesterday, post a dip in the lake.
But his giggles were worth it. It was our first adventure into […]

Peekaboo!

Wet Heat

The humidity was unbearable today. Dark billowing clouds hinted at thunderstorms in the stratosphere but no rain came to rinse the water out of the air. I felt like I had bathed in apple juice. Made me wish for impossibly cool things: iced tea in a limo, an arctic cruise, the chill of an Imax […]

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, ZZ Packer

A collection of short stories that captures the scope of lives on the periphery of things. Often painful, poignant and well worded, most of the stories left me staring off out the window, imagining more. I was impressed with Packer’s breadth of character’s and her deftness at making them believable. Often short story collections make […]

20 Weeks Old

Dear Bean,
You are a 20 week old bean today. That means you’re five months old. Where did the time go? Holding you tonight, in the big white armchair in the livingroom, with your face against mine, I could hardly imagine you as the little grunty thing you were, newborn.

Today you went for your first […]

Kisses

Procrastinate, write, repeat.

When I sit down to write, I immediately procrastinate. I start thinking about lists. I put my hair in a pony tail. I take my watch off. If I’m even the slightest bit hungry, like tonight, I’ll peruse the cabinets and the fridge, nibbling on bittersweet chocolate, fresh blueberries, lemonade. I’ll read the paper, circling […]

Talking to High Monks in the Snow, Linda Minatoya

This is the memoir of Japanese-American woman exploring where she “fits” within her two cultures. It is subtly written, with distilled, accurate observations about people’s behaviors and cultural differences. The story deals with developing a sense of “home” and belonging, based on a definition of self, and how selfhood changes based on geographical location, culture, […]