Will it ever subside? — If you’ve read anything about Diego, my developmentally disabled son and the inspiration behind this publication, you know that he’s keen on birthdays, all birthdays, but especially his own. Diego swells my heart and drives me crazy with his birthday obsession. Others — family, friends, acquaintances, strangers —only experience the…

Addressing my fears and need for approval — I had a hard time deciding how to structure this list. My first thought was to start with the great and end with the pathetic, to then conclude with how I would do better or different in 2023. But the pathetic is always more relatable, especially if, like me, you’re…

A teacher’s take — Allow me to establish two things from the get-go: Quiet quitting is nothing new. Though the term is new-ish, it relates to age-old human realities: ever-changing priorities and the fact that time is limited. There’s no agreed-upon definition for quiet quitting. In fact, different sources define it in vastly different…

I just don’t get it — In line at Starbucks the other day, the young woman ordering had a tiny dog (a Chihuahua I think) in her arms. The cashier was all ooh and aww, and they got to babbling about their dogs. Then the cashier pulled up a photo of his dog on his cell…

What pounding the ground can do to you — By the time I picked up running fifteen years ago, I already had a special relationship with words and language. In college, one of my majors was French and I’d also gotten a graduate degree in translation and interpretation. I journaled intermittently and was my extended family’s editor-in-chief. But I…

Or was it the pilot? — Sometimes things work out for you and you know a higher power had a hand in it. It happened to me when I switched to an earlier flight from Denver to New York and lived to tell about it. The planets lined up, the dots connected, the puzzle pieces fit…

My first parenting challenge — Being a mother is a wondrous experience but it is above all terrifying, and, in a way, a liability. You love unconditionally and this kind of love always comes with suffering and fear, as I began to discover as soon as I came home from the hospital after giving birth…

For the married and unmarried — Thirty years of marriage. How is it even possible? “It really has felt like two minutes — underwater,” an acquaintance joked the other day about his similarly long marriage. Seeing as I’m very slow when it comes to jokes, this one was simple enough and made me laugh. But I…