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A Beautiful Thing I Just Saw

I woke up to this email from Cait, who is in her last semester of college. I don’t believe it requires any prelude or conclusion. It speaks for itself:

Subject: A Beautiful Thing I Just Saw

It’s nearly midnight on a Monday evening in the deep quiet zone of the library.

There is an older man, perhaps in his 50’s, working on a tablet propped up on a black backpack. He wears a beige baseball cap pulled too far down

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What It Takes to be a Successful Writer

editing paper

Several people have asked what it takes to be a successful writer. In order to address this question, it requires that I ask a question in return: What is your definition of success? Because there are many kinds of successes–and failures–one can experience in writing. The writing experience can run the full gamut from simply loving something you’ve written, to getting it published, to experiencing writer’s block, to not being able to get a foot in the publishing door.

As … Read More

The First of Many Lasts

mikeThe official countdown of “Lasts” has begun, as Cait rolls into her final quarter of her senior year.

Last night was the last talent show that I’ll ever attend with Cait at her high school.

After an exhausting day of  long meetings and short deadlines, I got home well after supper. Cait took one look at my bedraggled self and said, “Mom, you don’t have to come.”

I didn’t let myself sit down at the table because I knew that … Read More

Saved by My Dogs

I was in the middle of a really frustrating dream in which I had an important meeting to get to and this well-meaning but bothersome person was causing me more and more problems. Just as I was about to lose it, a big, wet, dog tongue came into the dream and slurped my face. Then another. And another. Until, in the dream, I was laughing so hard that I woke myself up.

Both Kiera and Graidy were huddled on top … Read More

Chaos Math, Implicate Order, and Driving Lessons

Cait is of the age where it’s time for me to teach her how to drive. For as exhilarating as she finds her lessons, that’s how nerve-racking I find them. So when we get in the car for another lesson, I take comfort in the way she falls back into our usual “long drives” routine.

She starts with her customary opening line, “So what should we talk about, Mom?”

As Cait has a tendency to drive a little too … Read More

Running for the Train

Cait, knowing we had a long drive ahead, led with her standard question as soon as we pulled out of the driveway, “So, Mom, what should we talk about?”

Feeling more than a little frazzled and grumpy from a ridiculously hectic morning, I said, “Give me a minute.”

I concentrated on unfurrowing my brow, loosening my grip on the steering wheel, and taking a couple of deep breaths.

“Okay,” I said, looking over at Cait. “Now, what was it you … Read More

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