The Blog
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Europe 2023
Category: TravelNot to go all Arnold on you, but… we’re back! 🙂 I realize now that some of our friends might not have known we were gone. We stay pretty private and don’t tend to announce our travels on Facebook prior to our return, for safety reasons, as you can imagine. But now, I must share. Europe 2023 was our longest, toughest, most ambitious adventure yet. If you know us well, you probably know that Michael and I… continue reading
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Cancer Story
Category: HealthI don’t know how to write about cancer, how to write about this most harrowing and universal human experience. It seems most people have a cancer story or more. Or a devastating illness story. Health is the exception, and it is precious, and if it gets taken for granted, it’s only because it is there to be taken for granted. If you can’t take it for granted, it isn’t there. (This last observation is my… continue reading
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Ode to My Parents
Category: FamilyThis post was going to be short. Then it got long. And now I know it’s an ode to my parents — When I was in school, one of the traditions I always looked forward to was going to the office supply store to get new school supplies with my parents. It moved me that they always allowed me to choose pretty things. Not the plain white erasers, but the colorful, scented ones. Not the… continue reading
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Ode to Florida
Category: PoeticThe truth is, Florida, I love you just as you are… you can sunshine, rain, and thunder at your whim because I love your calms and storms, your every tendril of lime-yellow light, your cornflower skies cracked so easily by a whisp of cloud and a slice of sun, and yes, even your moody, feather-grey rainclouds, and — oh! — especially your peach-pink-coral sunsets, and that midnight sky that is never really black, but the deepest steel-blue.… continue reading
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Wendyta
Category: HeartbreakEverything reminds me of you right now — the sight of a pretty sundress, of long brown hair, of my own running shoes, of the running path around the little lake that’s by my house. The joyful notes of a Latin song. Even thoughts of my own mother and father (because they remind me of yours). I can find no comfort for this, Wendy. The loss of you is shattering. And that’s how it’s going… continue reading
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Voulez-vous Crochet Avec Moi?
Category: CrochetI started crocheting five months ago because I wanted to do something in life that I didn’t have to take seriously. I mean, at all. By that, I don’t mean that I sought something that wouldn’t involve patience, or time, or dedication. The way I look at it, everything worth doing in life requires those very qualities. Even a backyard sunflower, or succulent, or cactus, requires your attention and regular care. But there it is, you… continue reading
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Ten Years Of Marriage!
Category: FamilyTen years ago today, I married Michael Harrawood. What an amazing ride it has been, my love. I can’t even begin to compose a blog entry about ten years of a marriage like this. How? I could begin with gratitude, so here goes: I thank Providence! I thank the waltzing of the spheres and the exactness of the universe. I thank the fickle carousel of time for allowing your existence to twirl alongside mine, in… continue reading
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A Speechie Story
Category: Speech TherapyLike any practicing speech-language therapist, I have often spent time helping people construct a narrative starting at the beginning. So the beginning is where I will start, and the beginning takes me back to my delicate, poetry-loving mother, and to my hard-working father, who bought me many books. It takes me back to my war-ravaged country, a land studded with volcanoes, lush jungles, dark beaches, house-sequined hills, gray lakes, coffee and sugarcane plantations. A world… continue reading