Graduation!

May 16th, 2016 → 5:50 am

    “They threw their caps
    As they would hang them on the horns of the moon.” – Coriolanus

Happy graduation to everyone finishing college, high school, kindergarten, or anything else this month.  Wo-hoo!

Filed under: Blog & Other

That Morning Moment

May 12th, 2016 → 5:57 am

    “Momentary as a sound,
    Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
    Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
    That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream

(Note:  “collied” means “dark,” and “in a spleen” means “in a flash”)

People have different views of motherhood.  Some say it is the best thing they ever did (my own mother used to say that), some say it is the hardest; I’ve seen studies that show that parents are less happy than people without children, and other studies that find that they are more fulfilled.  I think you simply can’t know until you are in the middle of it.  And I also think that the experience will be different for each person, as childhood is.  For me, motherhood has been a joy, though I will admit that it is more work than not.  The majority of my time spent in relation to my child is spent cleaning, reprimanding, organizing, trying to figure out what the hell is going on or what just happened.  There are times, in the midst of the chaos, when I wonder what I am doing.  But every morning when my son wakes up, the very first thing he does (before even going to the bathroom) is to find me and give me a very long, very extended hug.  Sometimes this morning hug lasts for a few minutes even!  And in the still quietness of the house, with my husband asleep in the bedroom and nothing making a sound but my son’s beating heart against my own, I think, this one moment makes it all worth it.  Literally.  It may seem odd that 60 seconds of pure joy are worth what is often 5 hours of thankless frustration later in the day, but I can’t explain it, it is.  When I hug my son in that brief morning moment, and he’s just all relaxed and warm and draped over me, the comfort is exquisite.  It is like we are one.

Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life

Gap Year

May 7th, 2016 → 5:36 am

    “Such wind as scatters young [women] through the world
    To seek their fortunes farther than at home,
    Where small experience grows.” – The Taming of the Shrew

There has been a lot of press around Malia Obama’s decision to take a “gap year” between high school and college.  I would just like to note that I took a gap year 20 years ago now, before it was ever made cool by a president’s daughter.  Mine was between college and graduate school and I worked at a minimum wage job for half of it, and for the other half drove around the U.S. in a car worth $300, staying at youth hostels and camp grounds, and visiting 44 out of the 50 U.S. states.  It was amazing.  And yes, everyone should do it.

Filed under: Blog & Other

Suicide

May 3rd, 2016 → 5:00 am

    “O that this too sullied flesh would melt,
    Thaw and resolve itself into a dew.” – Hamlet

Shakespeare has numerous quotes on suicide.  Many of the best authors often do!  I’ve been reading Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery this week, and came across one of the most beautiful, accurate descriptions of nonemotional suicide I’ve ever come across.  I quote only a part of it here:  (for full impact you should probably read the whole thing)

    “There was one time, however, when, having slipped, and finding yourself stretched flat on your face in the snow, you threw in your hand.  You were like a boxer emptied of all passion by a single blow, lying and listening to the seconds drop one by one into a distant universe, until the tenth second fell and there was no appeal.
    ‘I’ve done my best and I can’t make it.  Why go on?’  All that you had to do in the world to find peace was to shut your eyes.  So little was needed to blot out that world of crags and ice and snow.  Let drop those miraculous eyelids and there was an end of blows, of stumbling falls, of torn muscles and burning ice, of that burden of life you were dragging along like a worn-out ox, a weight heavier than any wain or cart.”

Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Other