I am not a young woman anymore. I am a woman well-lived. My body tells of all the years she has carried my spirit through life. Naked, I stood at the closet doors with the lights on and made myself ready. I took a deep breath and positioned the mirrors so I could see all of me. […]
I refuse to buy into the idea that a person’s worth is dependent upon a number. My daughter Ruthie is 3. She is a healthy toddler. Her brain is perfect—a neurologist confirmed that in 2012 when she was exhibiting some strange growth patterns that needed to be checked out. She is funny and incredibly smart […]
When life is full at home, cultivating deep relationships with friends requires real effort. I miss my friends and I am driving myself crazy. There, I said it. I’m swinging on the wrong side of the loneliness pendulum (which, if you don’t know, veers from super lonely to life-is-full-rich-and-loving), and am wasting entirely too much […]
Sure, it’s inclusive. But it still reduces women to their physical appearance. Well, we’ve finally done it. We’ve reached equal opportunity objectification for women! Many of my feminist friends understandably appreciated and shared: This article about now-elderly Playboy pin-up girls from decades ago showing they still have it. This article about a woman who paints nudes […]
Be beautiful, be sexy, be active, be nurturing, be domestic, be focused on everyone else, and by God, make it all look effortless. What is a good woman? What constitutes goodness and who is the arbiter of the standards that would indicate goodness? If women take their cues about how to “be,” either good or […]
Do we really shroud something so joyous (and potentially heartbreaking) in secrecy because…it might be awkward? You’re idly scanning your Facebook feed, past photos of organic seedlings and Andalusian beer, when suddenly a black-and-white splotch claims top spot. Your first thought: Christ on a stick! My friend is pregnant with an out of focus baby! Your second:How […]
I could accumulate objects even if the people and life I loved and wanted more than any object were stripped from me ruthlessly, brutally. After my mother died, my father couldn’t bring himself to empty out her closets. My mother had been sick for a decade, declining slowly throughout my 20s. She had plenty of […]
The closest I come to making up is a tube of tinted lip balm that I keep in my purse. I know better than to pay attention to the tabloids lined up at the checkout line. They’re exploitive, 99% fictitious, and mostly downright mean. But sometimes, I can’t help myself: It’s not the “Can you […]
