Dear Vice President Biden, I met you last week after a rally in Kingston, NY. You were there in support of Antonio Delgado, who is running for congress in the NY 19th. I sat in the front row of the rally when you spoke. My tiny almost eight-year old daughter, Esmé, sat on my lap, … Read More
Over the last few months I haven’t written here nearly as much as I promised myself I would—for a thousand reasons. It isn’t that I haven’t been writing. I’ve just been writing elsewhere…sometimes very publicly and sometimes working on the private words I’m not sure if I’ll ever let out of my computer. As I … Read More
“Hillee, I need you to get Phil. I need help.” There is an odd tone to my mother’s voice as it comes over the phone. I only later realize, as I am dialing my stepfather, that it is actual fear. I hadn’t asked her many questions because she said she had to go. The judge … Read More
Lately it is becoming clear for that my daughter and I share a passion for reading, for words. I am always been a highly verbal person. I experience my world linguistically in many ways. I encounter the world through words. But I have a five-year-old daughter whose special needs and medical fragility leave her virtually silent. Reading … Read More
I never thought I was a writer. And yet, here I am. This week I published words that terrified me…terrified and thrilled me. I’ve never felt as much or as little of a writer as I do right now, typing these words. *** When I was 15 my history teacher and met to review a … Read More
Today I wanted to bring my readers a guest post by my friend and fellow writer Josephine Mariea Moore. When I read her words on this matter on Facebook this morning I felt as if she was able to articulate so many of the things I have been feeling in my heart–and I wanted to share her … Read More
Lately my notions of what is possible for Esmé are changing. I don’t mean the distant ones that I do my best to keep an open mind about: Will Esmé speak? Will Esmé walk? Will she fall in love? Will she find a way to share her talents with the world through some kind of … Read More
I want to talk about kindergarten. Esmé is 5 1/2. This means that in September my little girl will be at the age where she should be starting kindergarten. I imagine that for most parents this is a terrifying and exciting thing. It can be hard to accept that our little kids have grown up … Read More
It is a beautiful Thursday afternoon. We pull into a tiny little road off of Route 44 in Ashford Connecticut. We drive over a one lane bridge, a large still pond stretching out to our left. Then we move slowly upward and into the woods, passing between two large piles of boulders. At that place … Read More
When I arrive at my boxing class this week, there are a couple of little boys Esmé’s age running around. Their dad is teaching a session in the back room. And every once in a while they come racing through the front room class, darting between heavy bags. I do my best to avoid them—as … Read More