Backpack-bound and smiling, my girls pierced the silent serenity of my car talking over each other and fussing over who would sit shotgun as we pulled away from their dad’s house. They were instantly chattering about the topic of the day – the topic now of every day – coronavirus. We hit the highlights: How…
“I don’t want to go to Dad’s. I have all of my school stuff here and I don’t want to pack it up.” I knew it would come. Last week was “I can’t wait to go” and this week it was bemoaning the same fact. Co-parenting during COVID-19 continues. This week in my lawyer role,…
“I can’t wait to go to Dad’s!! HE will let me go to my friend’s house.” Despite all the instructions not to, both of my hands instinctively went to my face and pulled my eyes and cheeks downward. And here it was – co-parenting during COVID19. My eldest daughter and I had just traveled over…
It was a startling statement. “You need to go to the hospital right now for a CT scan to rule out stroke.” I blinked without focusing and shook my head in disbelief. I had arrived at my doctor’s office with the confidence that she would give me an antibiotic to alleviate my self-diagnosed sinus infection…
It was so much harder than I expected. I had successfully navigated the Christmas holidays all seven years prior as a divorced parent with my two young daughters. Now, in my 8th year as a divorced parent, the Christmas season was upon us. Their dad made a request to take the girls away for both…
I couldn’t catch my breath. I was in a public place and tears were streaming down my face. The threat of urinating on myself was real. I could not stop laughing. It came wave after therapeutic wave – the fits of giggles in between the gasps for air. When I think back to the four…
We woke early with our mission in mind. On this misty morning, we found the tide reaching as far back into the ocean as possible. We walked quickly on the smooth, sand-soaked surface to discover this spot of local magic. Here in the tiny town of Neskowin, Oregon (population 134) – just past Proposal Rock…
There was a hole on the wall. She stared at it with the tears coming anew. This hole was not the kind that needed spackling and sanding, but the kind that needed time and space to replace the vacancy. She had just taken down the wedding portrait of her son and now former daughter-in-law. The…
The first time I saw a man punch a woman in the face, I was in high school, in the passenger seat of my boyfriend’s car, looking out the window at the bowling alley we were passing. I was shocked, horrified, and instantly felt sick to my stomach. Prior to that moment it had never…
She said it in such a whisper I could barely tell she was talking. “I still love him,” she said with a shiver of shame running over her. My heart moved over to make room for her. I had met this sadness before – from the hims and hers who came in throughout the years…