All tagged longform
As I headed out to my car last night after the end credits rolled for A Quiet Place, I was hyperaware of the silence. I noticed every step I took, the slamming of my car door, the wind moving the bare branches. I got home and the door to my daughter's room creaked as I opened it to tuck her in before I went to bed—I died. I shuffled papers on the counter—I died.
I got out of bed shortly after I heard my kids emerge from their room. I had failed, yet again, to get up before them to write, to run, to read. For the past year almost, I have felt defeated, rarely writing, running inconsistently and never reading as much as I probably should be. One day turns into two and two to four and so on and so forth, and the longer I put it off the scarier and harder it becomes. But as I heard my seven year old begin her work on her poster, which she decided would read: "Stand for what's right, even if you're standing alone," I suddenly found a little bit of motivation I didn't previously have…
It was a Monday that had started so well. It was Ev’s birthday, and I had told her to wait in her room until I came to get her up. I could hear the two of them squeal and squirm in excitement, Sophie followed their noises and pattered across the floor. I lit her “6” candle and stuck it in a donut. Pajama clad and wrapped in the still waking, blue morning light, Theo and I sang her happy birthday…
I’m dreaming of her in her mint green polka dotted swimsuit and her summer curls. Of the way the humid air brings such definition, such bounce. She has perfect Shirley Temple ringlets in the summer, they don’t wilt when the dry wind blows like they do in the cold months…
I didn’t even realize that Linus was on his way. A mere 18 or so hours before his arrival, my friend alerted me to the fact that we were in fact going to be getting some snow the next day. I had actually just been thinking about how Chicago was not living up to what, in my mind, qualified as a legitimate winter. It’s been cold, yes, bitterly cold, in fact. But we haven’t seen much of the white stuff…
