I just returned from the Bahamas with my daughter, Victoria.  This was my third and final ‘Teen Trip’, 3 days and nights that I’ve taken with each of my children.  Of all the pleasures of the cruise — staring out to sea, being entertained by comedians, watching my daughter soak up the sun — what stands out the most was our snorkeling excursion. (more…)

 For our blended family, this has been a week of last minute changes.  One moment we were adding a Tuesday night to the kid’s usual schedule and the next we were subtracting a Tuesday and adding a Thursday.  Then we added a Monday, but that fell through at the last minute.  (more…)

That white fluffy powder – it just keeps coming down in New England.  We’ve had four school snow days in four weeks.  I gaze at the accumulating inches outside my window . . . .  and I think about how this frozen water, a neutral substance, takes on meaning to so many people.  (more…)

I gaze out my window and I see only snow . . . a wall of winter white . . . and the world shut down.  Schools and airports are closed.  Doctors and dentists have nothing but cancellations.  Retailers hibernate.

And once the storm has passed, we are launched into work:  snow blowing, shoveling, salting, and plowing.  I’m reminded that snow days, like grief, require a persistent energy. (more…)

“I vow to love and honor you in sickness and in health.”  I blinked back tears as Dan and I watched the lovebirds celebrate their new year’s wedding.  And then, just as I was launching my own new year . . . I got sick.

Not terribly sick, but a monstrous head cold that has sapped the energy out of my first week of 2011.  I’m not a nice convalescent, I admit it.  I lament and moan and throw tissues on the floor like a big ol’ baby.  I sink into a pit of mucus-induced despair. (more…)