I saw a meme, a chart for interpreting what women mean: when they say this, they mean this. I hate it. There seems to be a cultural acceptance that women don’t say what they mean. Men know it’s true. Women joke about its truth. Have I mentioned that I hate it? First of all, people … Read more
I’m a big fan of reducing plastic consumption. It started when I was in chemo and a friend gifted me a Klean Kanteen. In the years since then, I’ve built up a healthy stainless steel water bottle collection, replaced all of my food storage containers with glass or stainless steel, eliminated disposables from the kitchen. … Read more
I wish fat could just be an adjective. (OK, or a noun, but that’s not my context today.) Sometimes, as a description, it’s useful. But there’s so much baggage attached to it. Shame. Guilt. Assumptions. Judgements. From within and from without. We need to be able to love others and love ourselves regardless of body … Read more
I usually wear Vibram Five Fingers. When The Kid was three, we were in a store, picking up some things to start a garden. Looking at the gardening gloves, he exclaimed, “Mama! I know what those look like! They look like TOE SHOES!!” It’s all a matter of perspective, and what you’re familiar with first. … Read more
Asking questions from a place of curiosity (as opposed to from a place of judgement) isn’t invasive. How can we ever get to know people and grow relationships if we can’t ask questions? If you’re a safe person to me, I am reasonably sure there aren’t any questions you can’t ask. (If you’re not, that’s … Read more
I have a handful of comic strips bookmarked and read them every day. One of them is Frazz. I started following him on Facebook, and it turns out he writes a paragraph or two every day with a post of his strip. I dig it. The following is from February 7. (If you use Facebook, … Read more
We had another track meet yesterday. A lot of places were traded in the last 10 feet. (Not always 1st/2nd.) Most kids ran hard all the way through. But a fair number of kids pulled up before the finish line. Missed out on a last-minute take or were taken just before the line. As anyone … Read more
The following popped up in my Facebook memories: The crap this morning reminded me that while I am privileged enough to choose not to be here next year…or even just not to be in this neighborhood in the evenings and on the weekends…my kids here don’t have that choice. I didn’t earn this life. It … Read more
You run. It doesn’t matter if you run fast or not. (It doesn’t matter how you define “fast.”) It doesn’t matter if you run short distances, long distances, or crazy long distances. It doesn’t matter what your body shape is. We sometimes have trouble giving ourselves a label when we feel like we’re “less than” … Read more
I don’t remember the conversation at all, but I do remember at one point in college telling a vegetarian friend of mine that I wasn’t into “all that healthy shit.” Times have changed. For me at that point, there was no draw to the healthy stuff. It wasn’t a defense mechanism—at least not one that … Read more