Uprooting: On faith and pretending

It’s that kind of day. Sometimes you just feel like putting on your boots and tromping around the garden, or rather, the mess of overgrowth that could be the garden, and cutting it all down. Chopping the unwieldy branches and gathering them in piles, hacking them into manageable pieces and stuffing them in the organic

Writing in Crisis as Necessity

The time we’re in can aptly be described as a crisis. There’s a very real life or death risk of unknowingly infecting someone or contracting this virus that could put someone high risk on a ventilator. We can’t see each other in person. We’re isolated in our homes, physically detached from our communities. So we meet

Nesting Instincts, Guest Post

In my “Writing Memoir in Time of Crisis” course last week, we asked “How is our memory of the past shaped by the present moment of pandemic? How is your relationship with memory affected by the questions you ask of your memory?” Memories do not exist in a vacuum but are shaped, toned, and seen

Writing Women’s Memoir in Time of Crisis: Self-Reflection as Self-Care

During a time of crisis—as in this time of being isolated, rising death tolls, economies crumbling, and jobs slipping away— writing about one’s self or personal past may seem self-indulgent. However, somewhat paradoxically, the work of writing about personal past experience can be a powerful tool to enter the present more fully. Like many freelance

The Opening of Morning

In the morning I had both my girls in my arms. Catherine snug on top of my bicep, hair nuzzled in my armpit. Madeleine just beyond her, within reach of my fingertips. Both almost breathing heavily, eyes almost totally closed, but then a cardinal lights up the widow with a red splash of sound. Both

Of Denim Jumpers and Blackberries

I never thought I’d homeschool. Not in a million years did I want to be associated with the families in denim jumpers, with awkward social skills, knowing lots, sure, but not knowing how to live in the world. Why would I want to do that to my kids? And what about myself? Of all the

Hiking in the Rain for Mental Health

Finding community in Free Forest School When we moved to San Antonio in 2016, I was 8 1/2 months pregnant, with a 2 1/2 year old. I had my baby the next week. It felt like I’d been ripped from my community and thrown into a sweltering solitude, in a new city, with no friends

Feasting in Haste

What are the rituals that sustain you? Morning coffee and deep breaths, sun salutations, setting intentions for the day, prayer before meals and bed? I’m a big believer in the power of ritual to hold us together in the midst of life’s constant demands and anxieties. To me, while other actions have a purpose in

Come Home

I remember the first Ash Wednesday service I went to after Madeleine was born. I was caught off-guard when my introspection swerved into an image of the face of my baby smeared with ashes. She wasn’t with me, but the image was stark, a cross swiped in black ash, off-center on her forehead. That year

(Car) Camping with Kids: The Basics

We have a campout coming up with our Waldorf co-op this spring equinox, and a couple of families have asked for advice on some of the basics of camping with children. I remember the first time I was contemplating whether it would be worth it to camp with my first child. I grew up camping