Category Archives: family

The Ghost of Christmas Spirit Lost & Found

Our son Henry is a joyful boy. He’s been known to sail through the house saying, “I’m expressing my joy!” Like all kids, he has been excited for Christmas weeks. His joy factor is even more elevated. He’s turning ten years-old on January 6th. He is on the delicate cusp of leaving the tender parts of childhood permanently behind in the coming years. He hasn’t asked me if Santa is real or not, though I have suspected he might have some suspicions, considering he’s a 4th grader now. However, if he does, he hasn’t let on to any of us. Continue reading

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“What All Children Know”

I am working to organize my new office on our recently renovated third floor. It’s been slow going. In fact, it looks like a small U-Haul storage facility threw up in here.
I just found a black moleskin notebook in a box from our old house which a few years ago, I used to carry with me everywhere.
Not only and I’m an innate archivist, I am a Junior Varsity record keeper. I think this is an off-shoot of being a writer.
What’s in this notebook?
Well, notes; everything from daily “to dos”like “pick up dog pills” to a five-year plan I wrote in 2007 that I still have one year to complete. Continue reading

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Summer Lovin’… Had Me a Blast? Happened Too Fast?

The older I get… the more pressure I seem to place on summer. I’ve attempted to examine this dynamic but I’ve only managed to cobble together a few pale theories.

Is this because______?

A). I live in New England. Our winters and springs are long and cold. It seems to take summer forever to arrive. When it does it’s time to get cracking on boating, beach-going, lobster rolls, and all manners of summer fun?

B.) Time feels like it’s passing faster than ever, therefore I need to really make summer “count” because “it’ll be over before we know it”?

C.) I want to futilely recapture some summer romance of days long gone by, while being in complete denial that this is no longer truly possible because I am a full-fledged grown-up? Continue reading

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The Death of (Most) Problems

I’m trying to get my kids out the door to get to camp on time. We’re running behind.

I look at the clock. Rats! There is no avoiding that they’re going to be at least ten minutes late.

“Oh the horror!” I mean, who cares? It’s ridiculous, right?

Yet I do care to a certain extent, because I like to be organized and on the ball and all that.

Being late feels sloppy to me and I don’t like sloppy.

Plus, I feel it’s disrespectful to keep people waiting.

Clearly, I bring a lot of baggage to being late. Continue reading

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The Tao of Poop

Last winter, right before Christmas, I was trying to soothe my frozen shoulder (another story) with an Epsom salt bath. When the tub drained in our second floor bathroom, the tub in the first floor bathroom filled with water.

“Must be the salts,” I thought.

We called the plumber who performed a thorough diagnostic. He had “bad news.”

Water was backing up into the house from our sewer line connecting us to the street — meaning our sewer line is collapsed. The water has no where to go, so it backs up into the lowest point in the house.

As far as I was concerned, the fact that it was only water backing up into the tub — and not sewage — was really pretty awesome.

Yes, we had a problem. Yes, it was going to be expensive to fix, but I was very grateful for what wasn’t happening … a veritable indoor shit storm at Christmas. Continue reading

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The Power of “No.”

Some dear friends were recently complimenting me on my ability to say “no.”

I was surprised yet pleased, because saying “no” doesn’t come naturally to me. I’ve had to work at it like I’ve had to work on my posture or my penmanship, since saying “yes” is my reflex.

My sister and I have long shared a joke about the a nodding “yes” that almost indiscernibly segues into the gentle “no” — complete with the casual shaking of the head. When we observed people doing the “yyyeahhhhhhhnnnnnoooooo,” it cracked us up because it was so relatable. Neither of us really knew how to say “no.”

For years, I would automatically answer “yes” to invitations — Yo Alix, do you want to go ice fishing at 4 a.m.? (beat) Um, yeah — because I didn’t have the skills or confidence to kindly decline. God forbid I should offend someone. I mean, what if they don’t like me? Everyone has to like me, right? Right?

I would accept jobs, social obligations, or projects that I really wasn’t feeling for one reason or another but felt powerless to refuse. I really love people. I don’t want to let them down. It seemed much easier to let me down than let others down. Continue reading

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