You know those three things that you’ve always thought of?

I took this photo on my first day at an ashram in India, about an hour north of Rishikesh, after crossing the Ganga into the Himalayas. I was 34 and as exhausted as I look. Before I left, I mailed my ballot, casting my vote for who I hoped would become America’s first female president. I wrapped two sets of 15 small presents—one for each day I’d be gone…

For Christmas, my 12-year-old, K., got a 3D printer.

A reflection on grief, writing, and intuition—how backtracking through old words became a way forward.

December on my favorite Boulder trail is all woody pine and dry grass.

Lately, my kids have been shushing me. In restaurants, on city sidewalks, even at home when I get a little too animated telling a story. I remember, actually, doing the same to my mother. Wanting to disappear her in moments that felt like too much. When one of my kids initially shushed me, I felt embarrassed, like maybe I really was too much. Was I too …

“Make your characters want something right away even if it’s only a glass of water.” - Kurt Vonnegut

The night of my father’s death, on July 5, 2011, after the funeral home men with their jingling keys hooked to their belt loops drove away with his body in the long black car, I sat cross-legged on my parents’ deck in a white wicker chair with a navy-blue floral cushion, watching bats swoop low around the Hawthorn tree and clutching a bottle of Hop Devi…

It was March of 2023, and before bedtime, ten-year-old K. pulled on his Pokemon pajama pants and hopped into his bed where I was already snuggled under the covers, Percy Jackson and The Sea of Monsters open to our page. He tucked against my side and pulled his Squishmallow boba tea to his chest, clamping it under his chin. I began to read, but I didn’t …