Thursday is American Thanksgiving. It is a little late this year and people have used this an excuse to put up their Christmas trees and blare the holiday tunes. The schmultzy commercials have started and I may have already indulged in a Hallmark-esque movie or two. Spoiler Alert: The big city girl actually loves her […]
The Many Faces of Silence
by on January 29, 2019 Leave a Comment
There are many faces to Silence. The loud booming Silence of Loved Ones no longer here—their voice and presence deeply missed—can cause a reflective silence. Post-holidays, there is also the Toxic Silence. A silence that may continue all year for some, or only rear its ugly head at the holidays. That is the silence that […]
Nativity
by on December 23, 2018 Leave a Comment
Last night I stepped outside into the bracing cold to let the dog out one last time before bed. Already, the ground glinted with heavy frost. I breathed in sharply. My nostrils burned. Instinctively, I shoved my hands deeper into my coat pockets. I looked up and waited for my eyes to adjust to the […]
Labor of Pain, Labor of Love
by on December 16, 2018 1 Comment
I grew up Catholic. Not an Easter-and-Christmas Catholic. But an every-week-we-went-to-mass-and-my-great-grandmother-taught-us-the-rosary Catholic. We were Irish, loud, played bingo, had the priest over for dinner and I just assumed that everyone else lived the same way we did. I went to Catholic schools, wore the plaid skirts and knew the Stations of the Cross before I […]
The Hope for Which We Now Labor
by on December 12, 2018 1 Comment
It’s true what mothers say about forgetting the pain of childbirth. My births are now seven and nine-and-a-half years ago and I have to strain to remember the details. Giving birth is a moment we spend countless hours preparing for. It is the culmination of reading and birthing classes, showers, reordering our lives and homes, […]
