I recently had a SMM (Seasonal Meal with Mom) with my daughter Victoria.  As we listened to mariachi music, she looked intently into my eyes and asked, “Mom, would you change anything about your past if you had your life to live over?” (more…)

They flew overhead all day long, the sun glinting off their wings.  We must have been right on their flight path since they came repeatedly, even into the night.  “Honk” “Honk” “Honk!” (more…)

My chin rested in the optical machine.  The doctor had me read from the eye chart and puffed air into my eye.  I, a glasses virgin, waited with trepidation for his diagnosis.

Over the last few years, I had taken to squirreling away reader glasses in every corner of the house.  I had complained indignantly that the font in restaurant menus was too small.  But now, I was tired of tolerating my world as a blur. (more…)

Last weekend, I indulged in one of my favorite hobbies: collecting sea glass.  As I hunched over a slip of beach on a rocky coastline, my eyes scoured the sand and rocks for small gems.  A sliver of green . . . a small piece of pale brown.  I found sharp shards that I tossed back into the sea to continue their journey. (more…)

It starts the minute they turn 15 ½: “Mom, can I drive?”  I just survived this rite of passage 2 years ago, and now here we go again with my son Channing.

We start with the empty parking lots.  Next the quiet cul-de-sacs.  We graduate to back-country roads, then busier streets, then rush hour traffic.  I have learned to relax the grip on the door and refrain from screaming, “slow down!” (more…)