When my daughter was fifteen months old, we survived a plane crash. Doctors and the media called her the miracle baby. Airlines advise parents to hold children her age in their laps, even though they know that as far as science is concerned, there is not a way to prevent a lap-sitting baby from becoming […]
Writing
The Thing About Appreciation and the Times We’re Living In
“You know, Bailey, sometimes I don’t think I’m beautiful. But when I take a breath and dance, I know I am.” — Evolette, 6 years old. My son, Bailey, works at our Local Boys and Girls Club, which is a little like a mix of summer camp and day care. Bay has always been remarkable […]
Life and Love during Coronavirus
It seems incredible to me that just 10 days ago from the day I am writing this, I was urging my partner to stick to his plans of traveling to Texas to visit his son at Shepherd Air Force Base because, I figured, it’d be the last window to do so. I was secretly still […]
Inconvenience Yourself to Save Lives
I will be 39 in April. I’m a mother of a toddler, I’m a wife, an educator, writer, visual artist. I vote. I’m passionate about civil rights and the welfare of others. Though, honestly, I never feel like I’m doing any good in this world, that many times I feel like a cog in a […]
The Thing About Writers
Writers are people, too. But then so are felons, you might say. Writers are human and awkward and not at all transparent, though some are, of course. Sometimes we (writers) like to think we have thick, alligator suitcase skin, a carapace of sorts, because, well, that’s quite necessary for survival in a “field” like ours […]
Write the Story
Once upon a time, when I was in about second grade, my almost-best-friend borrowed a record from her older brother’s room and I heard David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” for the first time. In the song, Major Tom, an astronaut, leaves his space capsule, which then takes off for Earth without him, stranding him in space. […]
