everyday life

I read Don’t Miss This by Jena Strong, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman, The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, The Rules of Inheritance by Claire Bidwell Smith, I Couldn’t Love You More by Jillian Medoff, Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian, Light Years by James Salter

We spent a week with my sister and her family, newly home from Jerusalem, and celebrated both my mother’s birthday and the Fourth of July.

Grace, Whit and I went out to Walden early one morning for a swim, and found the pond deserted, still, quiet, and sacred.

I took Grace to sleep away camp for the second year in a row.  Last year, she clung to me as we said goodbye, crying, asking me not to leave.  This year, she waved at me, frowned briefly at the tears in my eyes, and turned into her cabin with her friends.  Just as it should be.  I made it out of the gates and had to pull over to cry for a moment.

My favorite blog post: Transition

We played the License Plate Game, and by the end of July had found all but four states (Alaska, Hawaii, Nebraska, and Nevada).

We spent a wonderful weekend with one of Grace’s godmothers and one of my best friends, and her family (including my godson).

I participated in the August break for the 2nd year, sharing a photograph rather than words each day.

I turned 38.

Grace, Whit, and I went to Legoland for four days and the four of us went to Lake Champlain.  The second half of August was stuffed full of sunshine, laughter, pictures, and happy memories.

If you’re really listening, if you’re awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold evermore wonders. ~ Andrew Harvey

I attended Grace and Whit’s school Closing Ceremonies and, predictably, bawled.

We went to Storyland for the third year in a row, on the day school got out.  It was marvelous.

I read Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Gone by Cathi Hanauer, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

One weekend, while Matt and Whit hiked and camped in the White Mountains, Grace and I visited Pops.  It is the last time I see him.

We spent a magical, peaceful weekend just the four of us by the ocean.

Grace spent 2+ hours in an MRI machine in the name of scientific research.

My favorite blog post: Maternal

Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article about in the Atlantic, Why Women Still Can’t Have It All, ignites conversation and debate among my friends both virtual and real, and precipitates much reflection about what “having it all” looks like for each of us.

I am proud to see my first piece run on the Huffington Post, 10 Things I Want My Daughter to Know Before She Turns 10.

What do I make of all this texture? What does it mean about the kind of world in which I have been set down? The texture of the world, its filigree and scrollwork, means that there is the possibility for beauty here, a beauty inexhaustible in its complexity, which opens to my knock, which answers in me a call I do not remember calling, and which trains me to the wild and extravagant nature of the spirit I seek. – Annie Dillard

Grace broke her collarbone.

Into the Summer Wishes box, amid wishes like “ride bamboo shoots at Storyland,” “play family Monopoly,” and “go to Water Wizz,” Whit put a small piece of paper that read, “Grace is able to go on all the rides at Legoland, because she is healed.”  I wept.

It was Matt’s birthday.

All four of us went to my 20th high school reunion.

My favorite blog post: Bones.

We spent Memorial Day in New Hampshire with our two dearest family friends.

I read The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont, The Red Book by Deborah Copagen Kogan, Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon, and went on a thorough re-reading of Wendell Berry’s work spree.

“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement…get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.” – Abraham Joshua Heschel

I had a wonderful dinner with an old friend from business school in New York one night.

I mourned the passing of Adrienne Rich.

The world burst into bloom, and we admired it on notice things walks, bike rides, and a trip to our favorite place, Mount Auburn Cemetery.

My favorite blog post this month: Perfect

I read Contents May Have Shifted by Pam Houston, Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh, Some Assembly Required by Anne Lamott, Quiet by Susan Cain.

We went to a beach an hour north of Boston that is rapidly becoming a sacred place for our family.  On a cold, clear late-April day we wandered on the low tide sand.  It was magic.

I wanted her to see that the only life worth living is a life full of love; that loss is always part of the equation; that love and loss conjoined are the best opportunity we get to live fully, to be our strongest, our most compassionate, our most graceful selves.
-Pam Houston