real, raw motherhood
Last night, half asleep, I heard our dog pacing in her crate. Unusual behavior for her. I got up and opened her door. She bolted out and circled around me in a frenzy, making it difficult to slip her collar on and clip her leash. Finally, we hurried down the stairs. As soon as we…
Who else loves the holiday season?I’m a big fan. Thanksgiving is an American holiday that I discovered only after getting married and I never got to celebrate Christmas as a kid, since I grew up in a Muslim household. Even before we became parents, my husband and I made a big deal of the holidays.We…
I have just finished reading The Paper Bag Christmas. With each chapter, my heart swelled up until it finally burst open and I lay sobbing in my bed. A Christmas miracle had jumped from the pages into my heart. I sensed my true essence. I wanted to bottle it up for safe keeping. I wanted to…
Life is good!
Imagine how thinking and saying those words might impact your life. How you might act differently, carry yourself, interact with your world and the people in it. How you might feel…
It’s been two years. I actually don’t remember many of the details now. I dropped him off and waited for the hospital to call me. When they did, about nine hours later, they informed me that the total colectomy procedure had gone well. When I saw my husband in the recovery ward, he was enjoying…
This essay was written a few days after I wrote the previous one I published. It explains the why of it and how I was able to change my frame of mind. It must first be understood how I came to feel the way I felt in the dark hours of that hot summer morning.…
What makes a good life? Is it having food every day? Is it a roof over our head? Is it money in the bank account? How much? Is it health? Having two legs to walk on and two hands to touch with? Is it Love? Motherly love? Romantic love? How many people can check every…
We just finished listening to the audiobook version of Pollyanna by Eleanor H Porter. I was familiar with the name but knew nothing of the story. This title wasn’t even on our reading list but my daughter stumbled upon it in our Kindle app and, out of curiosity, pressed the start button. She came to…
There are only two sure things in life: death and taxes. Most of us are painfully aware of taxes and plan carefully around them, yet most of us turn a blind eye to our mortality. We live as if we were eternal. We spend our days as if they were unlimited. Death has been on…
I’m in Saint Leu, a small beach town on the west coast of Reunion island. My friends are treating us to a weekend in an oceanfront villa. The sun is shining. Palms trees sway in the gentle breeze, bright green against the cloudless sky. A sliver of white moon winks at me. A golden dragonfly…