WOW!: Moments of Wonder & Awe
On the Road Again: Rogue River, Zion Canyon & Family
Three weeks ago, my family was nearing two months of sheltering-in-place in our Baja home. We had been adhering to strict physical distancing guidelines. The kids hadn’t played with another child, and we weren’t socializing with friends in person. What had initially been a unique and precious incubation started to feel suffocating and lonely, even…
Read MoreA Day of Death and Life at the Beach
“How about we go to Palm Beach today?” Dave asks as I hand him a glass of the dark purple, nutrient-dense smoothie I’ve just prepared. “Sure,” I answer. An hour later, we are packing up the car, and he asks if I want my fins. “No, thanks; I’m not swimming in that water,” I reply,…
Read MoreA Baja-Style “Welcome Home”
We are back in Baja, where we lived for 9 months through June of last year. I am walking out to the beach for the first time since our arrival. My daughter, who I am pushing in a BOB stroller along the dirt road, drifts into her midday nap. As we arrive at the sand,…
Read MoreAdiós 2018: Reflections on a wonder-filled year
As 2018 comes to a close, I sit down to write with my nearly 4-week old son propped up on a blanket and nursing pillow as he gulps down yet another snack. I lightheartedly wonder to myself if he is the hungriest man alive. In my loose plan for the day, I had hoped Theo would…
Read MoreSpace for Grace on my 39th Birthday
My daughter crawls into my arms, big brown eyes gazing down into mine that are adjusting to the daylight shining through the crack in our bedroom window shades. “Good morning, mommy,” she chirps in her soft, sweet almost two-year-old voice. I break a smile and we banter a bit. She continues, “Happy birthday, mommy.” My…
Read MoreBlessed is this Life: Thoughts on the Eve of 39
Tomorrow I turn 39, and I approach this birthday with a full heart. Life looks different than it once did. Mostly, I have finally come home to myself. Being in my skin is comfortable, relaxing even. And all that I do – the many roles I fill as wife, mother, coach, friend, and more –…
Read MoreHands in the Dirt
My breath tastes of compost and dust as I scoop a handful of damp earth with my right hand and gently place the roots of an arugula start into its new home with my left. I pat soil back around the hopeful green sprout and wish it ease and endurance as it settles in. I…
Read MoreWOW: When the Process is Enough
“Activation and cultivation of the imagination is a practice. Wildness is its breeding ground — wildness of place, wildness of heart and mind.” – Albert Flynn De Silver, Writing as a Path to Awakening “Why am I writing? I mean, what’s the point?” I say to my coach as serpent fingers of yearning try to…
Read MoreWOW: 4 Matrilineal Generations
My grandmother is beckoning a smile from my daughter by tapping her arm and meowing while holding her lifelike orange toy tabby cat. My mom says something to her in Japanese, and my grandmother momentarily breaks her focus on Lily to respond in a curt tone. Her facial expression shifts again as she turns back…
Read MoreWOW: Seashells with Lily
“Mama, more shells,” says Lily as she beckons to me from under the shade of her hiking backpack perched on Dave’s shoulders as we walk down a seemingly endless stretch of white sand beach. Dave throws a log back into the perfectly warm 76 degree aquamarine sea, and our dog Bandon sprints into the beach…
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