Published inHuman Parts·PinnedMember-onlyAdoption Is Trauma. Part 2.1972. I’m sitting on the padded peeling black leather seat, bumping up and down in the little yellow school bus as it traverses pot holes. My raincoat is translucent, crisscrossed with red plaid, my soft brown curls pulled into pigtails. The bus pulls into the Robin Hill Nursery School parking…Adoption9 min readAdoption9 min read
Published inHuman Parts·PinnedMember-onlyMenopause, Motherhood, And The Orca Whale.Lessons on love and letting go. 6:40 am. Scrolling the internet, sipping coffee, procrastinating packing. I’m visiting my daughter, 24, now living 3,000 miles away. An amazing weekend together. Laughing, talking, long walks in the park. “How about I stay a little longer?” “I would love that.” So here I…Menopause6 min readMenopause6 min read
Published inHuman Parts·PinnedMember-onlyRaise Good HumansWhat I learned when my kids said college wasn’t for them — The other day, I saw this bumper sticker. Raise Good Humans. Crisp white font on a plain black background. Its simplicity stunned me, shuttled me back in time. When she called in tears that autumn day in 2017, my daughter 3,000 miles away, a freshman at a small liberal arts…Parenting6 min readParenting6 min read
Published inThoughts And Ideas·PinnedMember-onlyMicrodosing, Mastodon, and Jonah Hill.Seeking Peace, Finding Kindness. 2008. I’m 40. I write a short story about my search for my birth mother, how in 1998, after searching for six years — after a social worker said it was impossible— I found her but she was already dead. I write about how finding answers soothed my soul at…Mental Health6 min readMental Health6 min read
Published inThoughts And Ideas·Jan 22Member-onlyPivot Or Die.On growing older and growing up. The white-haired man with a lined and pocked face told me he used to be a television sitcom director, he said humbly, “you may have heard of some shows” before telling me how a decade ago he collapsed under the pressure and found himself…This Is Us6 min readThis Is Us6 min read
Published inThoughts And Ideas·Oct 14, 2022Member-onlyA Long Marriage Requires Good Luck. A Healthy Marriage Requires Equity.This week was my 26th wedding anniversary. Twenty-six years with the same man and my conclusion is this: the success of my marriage comes down to luck. Luck we didn’t want to divorce at the same time, luck the money returned after it ran out, luck the near fatal illnesses…Marriage6 min readMarriage6 min read
Published inThoughts And Ideas·Sep 30, 2022Member-onlyMicrodosing Is Healing My Trauma.Psilocybin is helping me like nothing else has. The thing about microdosing psilocybin is, you don’t get high or trip, there’s no distinct before or after, no sudden euphoria or crashing come down. …Microdosing7 min readMicrodosing7 min read
Published inHuman Parts·Sep 21, 2022Member-onlyDon’t Make Us Choose. A Missive To Adoptive Parents.The unfair cruelty of secrecy — Exhausted, sweaty, jet-lagged, and anxious, I got off the elevator with no idea where to go so I turned left and wow, there was my mother at the end of the long, antiseptic hallway. …Adoption9 min readAdoption9 min read
Published inHuman Parts·Jul 10, 2022Member-onlyThe Power and Purpose of Sharing Our StoriesSilence doesn’t serve us — Okay well, in retrospect, the bottle of pills, the tablets of Tylenol poured out on the yellow formica kitchen table, swallowed slowly, methodically, one by one, was a little misguided. 16. So young, empty, so afraid. …Feminism6 min readFeminism6 min read
Published inThoughts And Ideas·Jun 26, 2022Member-onlyMake My Mother’s Life Matter By Fighting For Our Daughters.In memory of the women who had no choice, turn despair into action. My daughter and I, side-by-side on the top bunk, cuddled under soft blankets, hidden by darkness. She was 7, in second grade. Her little brother, my son, was fast asleep on the bunk below us, so we…Abortion Rights5 min readAbortion Rights5 min read
