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”
Tag Archives: personal essay
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”
Everyday Essays
Though I have written as a journalist for 30 years and dabbled in fiction and poetry off and on, I’ve only turned my attention to the craft of personal essays in the last few years. Below, find a collection of my essays, some published in magazines, on radio, and in online outlets, others created forContinue reading “Everyday Essays”
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”
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”
An Attic’s Memories
This mom is itching to create a place to hold her family’s history I fondly remember the attic of my childhood. A set of wooden stairs led into a hot, cedar-smelling expanse. The steps were cluttered with cleaning supplies. I recall an ironing board hung on the wall. But once the risers dissolved into aContinue reading “An Attic’s Memories”
Losing the Need to Win
I can easily recall the disappointment on my sweet son’s face. We were perched, him and me, at a game table by the window at a state park in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a rainy day and our plans of wandering and fishing had been shifted to play and snacks inside the visitor’sContinue reading “Losing the Need to Win”
High School Seniors, Here’s My Shoulder. Have a Big, Ugly Cry.
Dear Class of 2020: I’m writing today because sometimes when terrible things happen, it’s important to stop, and count the cost, and just cry. Of course, having the next few months of your life popped like a soap bubble is nothing compared to the tens of thousands of people who have lost their lives. ButContinue reading “High School Seniors, Here’s My Shoulder. Have a Big, Ugly Cry.”
To Connect is Human
Two weeks ago, I was in a retirement community in Eastern North Carolina, celebrating the long life of my mother-in-law. After a lovely funeral Mass, the family lined up to hear the kind words of those who knew her. We were instructed not to shake hands or hug. We could lean in, bump elbows, smile.Continue reading “To Connect is Human”
Finding My Path
Six years ago next month, my first newspaper feature in more than a decade was printed in The Roanoke Times. That story marked the beginning of a new chapter in my life, one where I would attempt to add a career in writing to the swirl of raising three kids and eating local food and volunteering in my community.Continue reading “Finding My Path”