I usually write stories about people I admire. This is a story about qualities I do not like very much. These kinds of people have a lot to teach us.
A Small and Simple Story About Cake and How to Give People What They Really Want
Small and Simple Story About Being Self-Aware of How We Choose to Love
A Small and Simple Story About Changing the Way we Talk to People in Despair
A Small and Simple Story About Reaching Toward Adaptation With an Open Hand
We begin our lives tethered adoringly to the people who care for us, then broaden our circles of influence. We make hundreds of choices each day about how, or even if, we will invite other people into our lives at school, at work, and in our neighborhoods. Living alongside others can be lovely and it can be hard. Lines are drawn in the sand until blown in new directions. I think it’s about reaching toward adaptation with an outstretched hand…
A Small and Simple Story About Penciling in Time for People
A Small and Simple Story About When to Prune, When to Trim, and When to Leave Well Enough Alone
A Small and Simple Story About Returning to Ourselves
There is a lightness to being fully vaccinated. A little like a revival, it’s also a path to something new. I’ve changed, we all have. Rather than trying to fill the silences, I’ve learned to create small spaces of welcoming for aloneness. I never liked being alone but I do now. I’m returning to myself and find I have grown, which is a pretty good trick for a gal my age…
A Small and Simple Story About Miracles Like Music and Babies
An afternoon with Dan’s best friend and a band of single guys who were largely unconcerned with the miracle of birth sounded like relief. I’d been haloed in hyper-attention for nine months and all I really wanted was to be left alone. I would savor the sanctuary of affable and carefree pals more interested in Dan than me. Being just part of the scenery would feel like a soft lullaby…
A Small and Simple Story About Getting Used to Others Again
A year of self-regulation and being alone a lot amplified any tendencies we had to be introverts so re-engaging feels like work. Dan and I were taking steps to re-enter society and spread our wings like hatchlings who stayed too long in the nest, we rubbed our zoom-weary eyes and started to rev up, gaining speed daily. And then quite suddenly, we lost our internet, landlines, wireless, and cable for the weekend, which stunted liberation in ways that surprised us like an unmarked speed bump on an unfamiliar road…