The Magic of ‘The Nutcracker’

If the show can go on, a flicker of hope will too When I was a little girl, there were few outings more magical than a trip to see the Nutcracker ballet. My sisters and I dressed in our Sunday best and climbed the narrow staircases of the posh theater. We held our breath whenContinue reading “The Magic of ‘The Nutcracker’”

Being Your Best

On Thursday nights, my middle child has ballet classes and my youngest heads to soccer. Her dad drives her, staying to watch, and the dog goes along for a walk. Which leaves me completely, deliciously, unbelievably alone for a full hour-and-a-half. It seems crazy that I am so thirsty for this sip of quiet. But IContinue reading “Being Your Best”

Grow Where You’re Planted

I am interviewing small business owners for a magazine story I’m working on. As I listen, I marvel at how each of them is saying the same words to me when I ask how they decided to keep their doors open in March when state regulations and customer fears and a completely unknowable virus swept throughContinue reading “Grow Where You’re Planted”

Our Kids Are Growing Up Faster in This, Our New World

It was a regular Thursday night. My youngest and I were boxing up beloved toys that she hadn’t touched in months. We were creating spaces for new projects sorely needed now that so much of our lives centered around home. Out of nowhere, my stomach began hurting. I felt hot and tingly. The thermometer confirmedContinue reading “Our Kids Are Growing Up Faster in This, Our New World”

Opening Up to New Possibilities

It is just before sunset and ribbons of bright orange streak through low puffy clouds. I am walking on a foot bridge across the breathtaking James River in downtown Richmond, Va. Water courses over barely visible boulders. Mama duck paddles her babies to a stand of weeds to search for bugs. An osprey dips and glides overhead. AContinue reading “Opening Up to New Possibilities”

Learning to Listen

For Lent one year, I thought hard about what would be a true sacrifice I could make during the season between Ash Wednesday and Easter. I was a young mother at the time, staying home with my children. There were so few things that were even mine to give up. I was not eating in fancy restaurants orContinue reading “Learning to Listen”

Teens Gotta Talk … So I’m Letting Them School Me

Chillaxin’ at the dinner table with my husband, two teens and a tween goes something like this in these Corona Times: “Dude! These meatballs, though. They hit different.” “10 outta 10. Would eat again.” “Dopest dinner we’ve had all week, bruh.” And me, the English major, former newspaper copy editor and all around grammar policeContinue reading “Teens Gotta Talk … So I’m Letting Them School Me”

Behind Every Purchase, a Person

I was that early ’90s college kid who had the Think Global, Act Local bumper sticker haphazardly stuck to my dorm room door. Back then, it was a vague concept I was only beginning to grasp. Globalism itself was still early in its wide-reaching transformation of how we eat and shop and work. By the timeContinue reading “Behind Every Purchase, a Person”