It was my very first summer to mow the lawn, about a decade ago. When I was growing up that was a boy job, so I had never even been asked to mow. But the grass was kicking up Matt’s allergies and asthma so bad that I suggested I give it a go. Come to…
Sometimes you wake up, and you know that big thing is happening today. You’ll take that first-day-of-school picture and walk your blondy,  in her brand new Mary Janes, to kindergarten. Or you’ll open the door of your classroom and meet your new students for the first time, and will they eat you for lunch, the…
We stood in a triangle in the classroom –the teacher, the parent, and the student. The parent got onto the student about the grade showing up for my class. The student reacted. And that was about the time I almost interjected my opinion to the student. Except the triangle became a square –the teacher, the…
I don’t know what you did while you ate elevensies yesterday, but I reached over and grabbed the nearest book. (In my home, every room must have a clock, a box of Kleenex, and a half-read book.) In the kitchen, I am currently reading The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference,…
In an hour I leave for a school Christmas program, and I know at least two of my Spanish students have solos. I can hardly wait to hear them sing. Because life is more than Spanish, and I need to always remember my 45 minutes with nouns and verbs and conjugations is only a little…
Like a woman cooking a large family meal, I have a pot on every burner right now. Front right is the woman who has given up on her husband. Back right is the child still going the wrong direction. Front left is the young woman who has given up on her family. Back left is the woman who…
There are always two weeks of skeptical waiting. I follow Matt along the edge of the garden where we do a lot of squinting, trying to identify if that is a blade of grass or possibly the first green onion shoot. Just a blade of grass, I say. No sign of spinach, basil or potatoes either. Me, ever…
At 8:00 I arrived at the court house, by invitation of friends who were completing the adoption of two children. The last time I was in that room it was to watch a divorce finalize. Everything broken walks in those doors. How wearisome it must be to put on the robe and sit behind the…
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