Where I'm published
-
An October memory
“Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.” ~Lucy Maud Montgomery The following essay began as a journal entry after my father died. Later, it was published in the October 1998 edition of Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion. The piece is also included in my book, Writing Home. October Memories By Cindy La Ferle Lately I’ve been thinking of these lines from Anne Mary Lawler’s poem about the seasons: October dresses in flame and gold, like a woman afraid of growing old. This is a potent month for memories. Yesterday I watched while my son and the children next door tumbled like acrobats in the fallen leaves. (Is there…
-
Metro Parent Essay: Becoming Grandma
“Grandparents are there to help the child get into mischief they haven’t thought of yet.” ~Gene Perret Our new grandson, William George, was born in December 2019. Before he arrived, I wrote an essay for Metro Parent, reflecting on my hopes and dreams, what it means to be a good grandparent. You can read it here. ~Cindy La Ferle
-
“Farewell to Summer” in the Oakland Press
“Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.” ~Sam Keen Keeping your cool this week? Before the “dog days” of August melt into September, let’s make time to revive the simple, low-tech pleasures of summer loafing. If you missed my essay in the print edition of the Sunday Oakland Press, you can read it online here.
-
Preparing for the empty nest: An essay about letting go
“It is not what you do for your children; it’s what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.” ~Ann Landers As I post this, a good friend is on the expressway, driving her only daughter to start her first week of college in another state. I’m reminded of an essay I wrote a few weeks later after I settled into my newly emptied nest. The piece was first published in Metro Parent magazine, and later republished in Guideposts. To read it online, click here. Today our son is a married man with a family of his own — yet the topic of launching our kids to adulthood…
-
The gift of gab: How to improve our conversation skills
“We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.” ~Sherry Turkle Have our listening skills gotten a bit rusty? With the winter holidays fast approaching, it’s the ideal time for a refresher course in two-way conversation skills. Are you exhausted by folks who talk too much about themselves, or won’t let you get a word in edgewise? That’s the topic of this lifestyles feature in the Homefront section of The Sunday Oakland Press and Macomb Daily. (You can read it online here.) ~Cindy La Ferle
