Love Means Showing Up
I spent last week in Chicago with my son, Caleb, who was auditioning for college musical theater programs. It’s probably more accurate to say that I spent the week with Caleb and about a thousand other drama kids all of whom were auditioning in the same hotels. They all came to the Chicago Unified auditions
Over a decade ago, I began meeting with a spiritual director named Karen that a friend recommended to me. Since that time, Karen has become a dear friend and we met for lunch last week to celebrate our upcoming birthdays. During our conversation, she mentioned that an important question she asks herself regularly is, “What
My, my, my. Prince Harry and his wife, Megan Markle have really poked the bear. People seem to have very strong opinions about the royal couple wanting to have their own lives. Last week, Harry and Meghan announced that they would be stepping back as “senior” members of the Royal family. They stated that they
A few years ago, a friend bought my family a new nativity set at a fair-trade store. It was made in Africa and is different from any creche I had ever seen. The first time I was setting it out in our front hallway, I kept thinking, “Something seems off about this scene.” My mom
I played softball in elementary school; I wasn’t good at it. This was due to my terrible spatial awareness and also to my preference to just hang out in the dugout with my new friends. I liked being a part of a team, but I didn’t need to actually go on the field. I was
There should be different words in the English language for young teenagers (ages 13-15) and older teenagers (ages 16-19). Calling them all “teenagers” gives parents the false expectation that our experiences with them will be similar throughout all those years. I found the early teenage years pretty manageable, but I was totally unprepared for the
My grandmother passed away a few weeks ago. She was 95 years old and had lived a wonderful life. When I learned that she had passed, I was surprised that I felt equal parts relief and sorrow. The relief was that she wasn’t hurting anymore and that she had returned to the God whom she
My daughter hadn’t even spent the night yet at her dorm and I was texting my friends, “I should probably just go get her. She’s tried college and it went well. Now it’s time to get the family back together.” To be clear, my daughter wasn’t texting me with pleas to come get her. She
Last week, Lara Spencer, a host on Good Morning America, made a snide comment about Prince George taking ballet. Her tone was mocking and dismissive of boys who dance. Here’s what has surprised my son, the dancer: Not that someone made jokes about boys who dance. What surprised him was the pushback that Lara Spencer
I’ve been feeling tender lately. It’s almost as if my soul is a little bit bruised and I need to be protective of myself. One of the gifts of being in your forties is that you aren’t a mystery to yourself anymore. While this particular bout of tenderness stems from sending my oldest child off