It’s only walking away from the school where I left my youngest child starting fifth grade so happy, he barely took time to give me a goodbye hug, that the tears threatened to come. The sound is quiet, there are crickets, there are trees, tall trees overhead, beautiful sky, quiet neighborhood and in the distance, […]

He was asleep as I nestled into the sheets, but he sensed me there as he has for the past 10 years. So he rolled over toward me and slipped his little arm around me, holding on tight. Eventually sleep took over and he went one way while I went another, but for a good […]

The theater was spectacular, with regal spotless carpet beneath our feet and a glowing chandelier strung high above the main floor. On the stage, large screens and handmade sets alternated, with actors moving the evergreens and standing behind them rather than stage-hands designed to be invisible but quite easily seen. The lion, Aslan, representative of […]

My darling boy, I know I say this a lot, and you roll your eyes when I do, but I can’t believe how quickly time flies. It seems like just a little while ago when you were my little chubby baby boy with electric eyes and an eagerness to discover everything about the world. And […]

I woke up this morning feeling like a mom who just can’t win. Wait. I feel that way at least once a day. Unless the kids aren’t here, and then I feel like a great mom and like we are close and always will be. And that’s only because when they’re with the other parent, […]

So many years ago, when my grandfather was still alive, he brokered a peace between three of his sisters. There had been a decades-long feud, two sisters against a third. At family events, the host had to engineer table arrangements so the non-speaking siblings would not have to sit together. Finally, my grandfather had enough. […]

The Monday After… Melancholy and contentment in equal parts this morning, as I reflect on my beautiful daughter’s beautiful bat mitzvah weekend. Surrounded by loving family and friends from Friday afternoon until late yesterday, we were enveloped in the kind of community love that makes life worth living. My daughter did her part, demonstrating her […]

It was almost immediate. The kids and I stepped inside the garage studio that is Detroit Flyhouse circus school, and the bickering, nasty attitudes and defensiveness of the day melted away. Completely gone. As if they had never been there in the first place. Except they had. This is the first summer since I’ve been […]

I didn’t want to read it. The premise seemed so horrible to me that I couldn’t imagine how I’d get through the book. But my daughter insisted. She loved the trilogy so much that she wanted to read each book aloud to me, and how could I refuse? So this summer, every time we got […]