Sunday mosaic #2

The last farmer’s market of the season with pumpkins on the sidewalk, the tables heaped with squashes and knobby brussle sprout stalks. Already the lady who sells honey from her small batch of backyard hives is gone, and textiles—woolly hats and scarves fill up stalls where in mid summer sunflower bouquets and fancy heirloom tomatoes [...]

The amazingly talented Nichola gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on Thursday. Welcome to the world, Esme & congratulations mama! Nicohla also organized a postcard swap last month and, being a sucker for foreign stamps, paper mail, and all things artsy, I was excited to participate. The only rules were that they had to [...]

Friday afternoon

We’re in the midst of househunting—not for this year, but for next spring. A place with land—pastures, wooded areas, perhaps a stream. We moved north to find this—and today we spent a couple hours driving around and then walking out along trails onto land that we tried to imagine as ours someday. It’s a bizarre [...]

"Becoming a mother is a trial by fire"

Growing up, I bucked up against my mother fiercely. I felt similar to my father with my academic, intellectual habits: late nights devouring books and talking about ideas. But I almost felt scornful of my mother who was quiet and shy. She would ask me to keep my voice down in public places, and when [...]

Sick

Nothing prepared me for this: the fragility and fiery protectiveness I’d feel when confronted with caring for my sick child. Bean awoke last night about an hour after going to sleep—crying inconsolably, hysterically, till mucus ran in two small rivers from his nose. He cried hard and frantically, throwing his body about in my arms [...]

Self Portrait Tuesday: Life Documentary Series #4

MORNING It is dark when I wake up. Rain pouring down, smudging the window with tiny rivers. It has been three weeks of rain. I shower. The rooms in my small apartment are dim and blue and quiet, except for my baby’s excited babble. I dry my damp skin and wait for the collection of [...]

Fire

This week’s theme at Mama Says Om is fire. Go look.

Where the images went

Over the past few months I’ve discovered, again, that I am an artist. I knew this truth as a child, and I kept sketchbooks voraciously. I drew the everyday things of my life, and I’d sit for hours using crayons to imagine places I’d never been. I could lose myself inside the landscapes by artists [...]