Featured
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When silence speaks volumes
“To say nothing is saying something. You must denounce things you are against, or one might believe that you support things you really do not.” ~Germany Kent As today’s quote suggests, silence can be misinterpreted. This got me thinking about a variety of complicated situations — including politics. (Don’t worry: I’m staying bipartisan here.) Recently, some friends and I agreed that when people refuse to discuss politics, we often assume that their beliefs and opinions don’t align with ours. Or maybe they don’t know us well enough to share their truth. Otherwise, they’d speak up, right? We could be wrong, of course. But speaking from experience, I’ve learned that others…
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Rethinking my resolutions
“Beginnings are notation for the symphony of the possible in us. They ask us to break the pattern of our lives and reconfigure it afresh — something that can only be done with great courage and great tenderness, for no territory of life exposes both our power and our vulnerability more brightly than a beginning.” ~Maria Popova, The Marginalian Have you made any New Year’s resolutions yet? You might loosely define a “resolution” as a self-improvement goal — such as eating healthier meals or exercising more often. Then again, a New Year’s resolution could serve as motivation to achieve or acquire something specific — a clutter-free storage room, for instance,…
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Goodbye to Mom’s house
“No matter how far we’ve come, our parents are always in us.” ~ Brad Meltzer Even after we’ve grown up and moved on, the homes of our parents still hold many of our family artifacts, memories, and stories. After your last parent dies, selling their home — and everything they accumulated — is a difficult part of the grieving process. Yet it can be therapeutic, too. As we begin to empty my mother-in-law’s home, I’m reminded of a column I wrote for The Sunday Oakland Press after reflecting on the memory of selling my mother’s home. You can read it online here. ~CL
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Spring break for moms
“By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class.” ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh Few people need a spring vacation more than caregivers and moms with young kids. In Metro Parent, I share a memory of my visit to Captiva Island, where Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote her classic seaside meditation, Gift from the Sea — a book that has resonated with meaning throughout the parenting and caregiving stages of my life. You can read the essay online here. Photo by Cindy La Ferle
