I’ve condensed the radio interview from This American Life, Love is a Battlefield. What do you make of this woman? For seven-and-a-half years, Daniel was confined to a crib. He ate in it, stared out the window during the day, and slept upright in the space he shared with another boy in the orphanage. He… Read More An Unstoppable Love
My launching pad is an enlightening New York Magazine article that explains how praising kids for being smart often backfires, straitjacketing them to fear of failure. It spoke to me not only as a parent of a boy fairly fresh on the path of formal education, but as the studious girl whose achievements were marked… Read More Greatness, Part 5: Praise, Smarts, and the Myth of Self-Esteem
The little guy fell in love with this song by Chris Tomlin, Sovereign, when I was practicing for church last year. I think Tennyson played better here. He was 5 1/2. In the zone. I quickly grabbed the camera:
2.5 or 3 years old “Ditsy, ditsy spider went up the water spout.” 4 years old From the backseat of the car “Mom, you’re my Giving Tree,” the Tree in a children’s book who gives and gives of herself until she’s cut down to a stump. 5 years old Zonkers over the rare treat of… Read More Words Between Mom & Boy
Though Please Look After Mom was an international bestseller by a South Korean novelist, I didn’t care for the lackluster title or the parts that were overstated. But the well-painted portrait of a mother who goes missing redeemed the read plenty. She is a prototype of wife and mother from every culture since the dawn of… Read More The Invisible Woman
I shared this story with some friends last year, just before Mother’s Day: I was in third grade. I awoke one morning in our New York one-bedroom to the sound of piano keys going. Mom’s surprise. She had saved I don’t know how long waitressing, for her dream. She’d never gotten to learn herself and… Read More Autumn Leaves in May, A Piano Tribute to My Mother
Marriage Someone to walk with as long as you can together, to build a life with. Who sees you at your worst and has vowed to stick around, and encourages you to your best. The ring sealed the vows you made before God and Man, a sacrament of an institution bigger than your best intentions.… Read More 20 Things I Consider Sacred: Part 1
The question is one of roots and shoots; where we come from, what we’ve sprouted from that. What is the best nonmaterial gift you ever received from Mom? I wonder what T will answer as a grown man. There is no way he could ever be grateful enough for all I pour into him with… Read More Her Greatest Gift To You
Two months ago, I received an email from Li, whom I’d like to meet someday. She was planning a gift for Francesca, a mutual friend who is expecting, and asked for three things: a bead (of any sort) and two notes, a well wish for the Mom-to-Be and a well wish for the baby. The… Read More A Very Thoughtful Gift
A Holistic Journey 