Essay

18 MINEvery Sunday morning they drive to Surfer’s Paradise. By sunrise they are out on their boards. He teaches her to wait for the wave pocket that generates the most speed. She paddles furiously, stands, feels…

4 MINFollowing My Nose There’s a certain kind of heat — the drip-down-your-neck-into-your-navel kind of heat — that tickles, sears, and never entirely dries. It leaves salt tracks at the edges of your eyelashes and turns…

4 MINOn noticing, not confessing—and the distance between thinking and knowing Lately, I have been invited—repeatedly, enthusiastically—to join or lead journaling sessions. Some of these are in person. Some are online. All of them give me…

2 MINMy children do not look like me.  Our complexions do not match. The bathroom cabinet is filled with gels, creams, and brushes meant for an array of hair textures. Our eyes are all different shades,…

2 MINThere is a moment, just before the day lets go, when the light begins to choose. All afternoon it has been careless—spilling itself across rooftops, flashing off windshields, landing wherever it pleases. But toward evening,…

3 MINWell, yes, we’ve made progress. But we keep fighting the ubiquitous unremitting youth culture and all the stereotypes we’re expected to fit: wear subdued clothes, speak in subdued tones, don’t curse, don’t go to certain…

3 MINYou may even add the adjectives “little” and “purple” before the insult. Or is it an affront at all? To be sure, when I was a kid and someone called another kid a pansy, it…

5 MINEven though he addressed me by my first and last name, I stared at him blankly, my mind’s cogs and wheels turning. His features were familiar but distorted by time—a vestige of the boy I…

5 MINEvery autumn, a puzzle takes over our house—and, somehow, our lives. What starts as a small box of scattered cardboard quickly grows into a season-long obsession. It’s part hobby, part decoration, part social experiment, and…

4 MINOne Christmas, my husband gave me a gorgeous new pair of Women’s Power Streaker Winged Flyers RD 9560s. Six months later, with the grass a brilliant green and temperature threatening 90, my new running shoes…

5 MINI clicked off the hairdryer. “Oh, shit. No! Where is it?”  I came out of the hotel bathroom and saw Maggie frantically searching through her jacket pockets and hip bag. Oh, come on, we both…

4 MINThere are smells that come with a soundtrack. Jasmine at dusk? That’s violins and questionable decisions. Honeysuckle? Bare feet and mosquito bites. Salt air? You’ve either fallen in love or forgotten to reapply sunscreen. Smell…