You, with your relative youth your pout, your upward gaze. A young stellar object. And me, in front of you by decades. I see you as if in a mirror, behind me coming up fast in your body a month now perhaps for every year I’ve practiced being alive. I’m a supernova to your protostar. […]
Category Archives: parenting
So we wait to hear the words of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old suspect apprehended for the Boston Marathon bombings and subsequent spree of murder and mayhem. This kid lies in a hospital bed in serious condition with a throat injury, intubated and sedated, while an elite counter-terrorism team stands by to interrogate him the moment […]
Motherhood is daunting. No matter how many coats of denial and idealism one whitewashes it with, it is a formidable journey and it is not always easy to stay convinced of the delightfulness of the upbringing and management of the fruits of our genetic entanglements. Life is up and down, and take-it-as-it-comes, and full of […]
Most of us have a youthful time in our lives that we look back upon fondly, even if it was fleeting or fraught. This period in our life is often characterized by experimentation, falling in love, creativity, or travel, but mostly by a sense of unbridled freedom and a feeling of endless possibility. This time […]
Yesterday my partner Werner and I visited the small apartment where we are told his father has lived for the past four years. Werner’s uncle called a week ago to tell him that the medical examiner’s office was looking for him because his father had died. Werner was apparently the only known next of kin. […]
Several days ago I wrote about how my children witnessed the aftermath of a shooting in our neighborhood. If you want to read about it, you can click here. My kids are processing their feelings about it in different ways. My 17-year-old daughter had horrible nightmares a few nights ago. She dreamt about stepping over bodies after a massacre at a […]
When my first child was born 20 years ago, ”attachment parenting” was a new and somewhat controversial child-rearing philosophy which involved strict adherence to a demanding set of rules and behaviors including: natural birthing, leaving boys uncircumcised, babywearing, breast-feeding and child-led weaning, co-sleeping, not allowing babies to “cry-it-out”, practicing positive discipline, and so on. While I didn’t like to put a label on the way I […]
Phone calls at five o’clock in the morning bringing news of the death of a loved one by crocodile attack tend to have a life-long PTSD effect on a person, at least that’s what I’m noticing. Thus, when my phone rings unexpectedly, I instinctively brace myself emotionally and listen for any sign of bad news about to […]
Yesterday was my daughter’s first day of her junior year of high school, and my son starts his 7th grade year at a new middle school next week. I’m in the middle of a rude and abrupt awakening from the endless-summer fantasy I’ve indulged myself in these past few weeks. Like always in the month of August, I’ve had that stupid “mother-amnesia” thing […]
Some people seem to have a deep and abiding urge to share their innermost thoughts and feelings. I am one of those people. While I recognize this can be one of my most precious personality traits, I am also aware that it is a tendency that has the potential to cause hurt. Now that I am a grown up, mature 46-year-old lady, I can look back […]
