Grace’s hockey team won their league, and I had tears in my eyes watching them standing as the anthem played.
Grace played the donkey in the sixth grade performance of Shrek, and it was a triumph, enormously moving to watch.
Whit celebrated his 10th birthday by indoor skydiving, and I marveled at his courage and joy.
I had vertigo. Terrible, terrible, terrible.
I celebrated my 15th reunion from business school.
My favorite posts:
The primacy of interiority
The season of amazement
Everything is changing
What’s next for me as a writer?
My favorite quote I shared:
As for me, I see both the beauty and the dark side of things; the loveliness of cornfields and full sails, but the ruin as well. And I see them at the same time, at once ecstatic at the beauty of things, and chary of that ecstasy. The Japanese have a phrase for this dual perception: mono no aware. it means “beauty tinged with sadness,” for there cannot be any real beauty without the indolic whiff of decay. For me, living is the same thing as dying, and loving is the same thing as losing, and this does not make me a madwoman; I believe it can make me better at living, and better at loving, and, just possibly, better at seeing.
– Sally Mann, Hold Still
by Lauren Thompson and Jon Muth and 
by Tomie dePaola are two of our very favorites. As it very often does, reading together that night smoothed the edges of what had been a very rough day.
– Grace and I both read and loved Rebecca Stead’s new book. It broaches timely and important themes in an approachable and entertaining manner. Highly recommend!
– I’ve mentioned Whit’s passion for Percy Jackson and he’s now reading the Heroes of Olympus series. This book is already set to go under the tree of him. It reminds me of 
which is a book I myself loved as a child (and which Whit already has).
– Gordon Korman’s trilogy riveted Whit (and was his only recent non-Rick Riordan reading).
– This picture book is my favorite recent find. It has a dreamy quality and describes Einstein as a curious child who just can’t stop asking why things are the way they are. Whit, my little wonderer, adores it. 
– Another picture book that has recently captivated our house. It evokes Cummings’ joyful childhood and shares some short passages from his work. A beautiful reminder that there are many ways to dent the universe, and of the power of paying attention.
– Mary Oliver’s new collection of poems has a lambent lightness and a new focus on human love (rather than the natural world) which seemed like a departure to me. I love every word this woman writes.
– Sally Mann’s lyrical memoir contains pages of gorgeous photographs. A great gift for lovers of modern art, of the South, or personal history.
– Elisabeth Egan’s debut novel was one of my favorite reads of this year. I reviewed it 
– My other favorite novel of 2015 was, rather than a debut, a final book. Kent Haruf’s beautiful story manages to be grave and graceful at the same time. I adored this book.
– I 
While Grace cheered on the boys’ race, I watched the sunset over the Charles River. I admired it, and photographed it, but felt a vague and inchoate sense of uneasiness too. The sky looked thunderous, dramatic, full of portent. Like the strange, eerily truncated rainbow earlier, there was something unsettled in the sky. It was as we drove home that we learned about the Paris attacks. The sense of accomplishment and pleasure of watching my new teenager running quickly dissolved into desperate sorrow and worry about the world. 