On my birthday, I exhaled into a new word: Freedom. For nearly three weeks of my new age of 43, I've been letting this word show me what it means. So far, Freedom means giving away the shoes that hurt my feet. I have long heard women older than me say things like, "I am […]
When I was a little girl, I loved watching Mr. Rogers. I would sit in my living room and stare at the TV, watching so closely and listening to whatever he was talking about, soaking it all in. I loved his sweater and his shoes, I loved when he would feed the fish. Admittedly, I […]
For a brief season of their childhood, my boys gave gymnastics a try. In retrospect, I think they were more interested in learning fancy trampoline tricks, but nonetheless, for a few months I spent many an afternoon in the tumbling gym. My mind wandered while my boys were flipping and flying with the one class […]
My first husband died eleven years ago, on the morning of December 23, 2010. In the days to follow, I released this personal account of his final hours, the story I must write. Please be advised, these paragraphs are graphic, detailed, personal, and mine. Read with caution, respect, and care. These words hold my very […]
Knock, Knock. Who's there? Something that should matter to you. Something that should matter to you - who? Yes. And also Where and When and How and For What Purpose and For What Cause. Everything matters. There's so much to care about. Everybody is giving me more things to care about. The headlines are […]
Well done, Simone. Well done. We don’t own you, Simone. Nobody does. We have showed you off like you are our prize pony, but you are nobody's work horse. You knew in your heart that this doesn't define you. That you are enough. I cannot get over this display of greatness, dear girl […]
My husband (Peter) and I have two vastly different stories of faith miracles. He begged and pleaded with God from a desperate place in a jail cell, and God told him yes. The miracle is that he was set free. I begged and pleaded with God from a desperate place on my bedroom floor as […]
There are so many things that are difficult about being a person right now. There is what there has always been, And there is a long list of what has never been before. There are the dishes in the sink, And there are the cereal boxes left open on the bottom shelf of the pantry. […]
"Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be?" ~ Anne Lamott I wrote a piece last week that got chewed to bits on the interwebs. Chewed. To. Bits. I mean, not by everyone. Probably not by you. But enough people pecked […]
I read recently about an interview with author Nora Roberts, where someone asked her how to balance writing and kids. (Anything of this specific genre grabs my attention faster than a barista calling out the cup with my name on it.) She said the key to juggling is to know that some of the balls […]
I am forty-one years old. That happened this summer. I am solid in my emotional convictions about birthdays (love them) but also odd numbers (hate them), but forty-one seems to be here for a while longer, and we are becoming friends. Since I am the age that I am, I feel old enough to finally […]
Three things have happened, and they are sorting themselves into the same space of my mind, as if they belong there together. First, I sat outside during a summer evening rain shower. The tasks of the day were finished, we were in the after-dinner space of each doing our own thing, and I was sitting […]
When my family goes away for a bit, things fall to pieces. When we got on the cruise ship in March, it was still safe to travel. When we got off the ship, the pandemic had hit, and we barely made it home. Everything had changed. Schools were closing, small businesses were sinking, and nobody […]
This is the final week of distance learning, a household term that nobody knew three months ago. This week, we go to the school to pick up what was left behind in their lockers in the Great Middle School Rapture of March 2020. One of the parents commented on the school thread: I'm so sorry […]
"Tricia, how can I stop living in fear? I’m worried that something will happen to the person I love. How can I keep this fear from paralyzing me?” I posted this dialogue back in October, back when we were all roaming the aisles of grocery stores, like the people next to us were safe […]
"This is one of my favorite days," he said. He's the principal of my sons' middle school, and he was hosting the Honor Roll Assembly. Each student would receive a public affirmation, a firm handshake, and a certificate. We parents are the lucky ones - the real winners. We get the coveted sticker for the […]
Tricia, this weekend we will be spending time with a ten-year-old boy whose mom died recently. What cues do you have for me for interacting with a heartbroken boy? Our time together is probably meant to be a fun distraction, NOT a heart-to-heart conversation moment, but I am just curious what sort of support was […]
"Tricia, how can I stop living in fear? I'm worried that something will happen to the person I love. How can I keep this fear from paralyzing me?" This question, it's so pure, honest, true, and real. How can I keep from being afraid all the time? Here's what I said to this person who […]
Just when I thought I knew my role as Baseball Mom, my boys changed their position on the field. They're umpires now. Baseball officials. They make the calls for Little League Games - the littlest of the leagues. Little tiny doll-size players who are eye level with Tucker's belt buckle. A catcher so small and so […]
"I would do it all again. I wouldn’t have spared myself any of the pain that I have gone through by loving hard, and by loving what death can touch. I wouldn’t change that. I think sometimes we try to protect ourselves from the inevitable, and really, that's where grace is. Grace is in the […]
