Category: Personal
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Birthday Reflections: Fifty Years
Fifty years. Five decades. Half a century. It feels momentous. Salt and pepper hair, curling at the edges. A ready smile. A fit body from playing tennis incessantly. A minimalist before it became an in thing. A progressive before I knew what that term meant. A boomer living in a Gen Alpha world. You are…
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Summer 2024: Rediscovering Joy
Tomorrow, the new school year starts in my corner of the woods. With it, comes the predictable change in routines. Waking early, packing lunches, the morning mania and the eventual quiet that is cherished. This summer has been unusual in many ways. We started the end of school with a trip to the beach that…
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Embracing Teenage Years: A Parent’s Perspective
It’s 8:45 pm, typical bedtime in our home. One of my older girls pauses to fill her water bottle. She is giggly. I look askance and she spills the tea. First loves, crushes, kisses. It all comes pouring forth. I smile along with her and as we walk upstairs remind her that actions have consequences.…
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Woman-ing In Menopause
I stand at the bottom of the flight of stairs, the task seeming unsurmountable. My heel screams in pain when I put my weight on it. I trudge upstairs, stopping in the middle to take stock of this life, this moment. I stare into the mirror moments later looking at myself critically. My face is…
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Letters To My Daughters: The Big 1-0
“What should I dream about?” Your voice still carries a trace of babyhood that is fast disappearing. Your round face wrapped in a plush hoodie, surrounded by pillows makes me want to squish you tight. I limit myself to planting a kiss on your forehead and walking away. Just as I turn out the light,…
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Letters To My Daughters: Birthdays!
Dear Ammu and Pattu, The house is quiet today, kind of like the calm before the storm. I open the packages from Amazon that line my study. I sort the gifts in two piles, one for each of you. I bag it up, discard the boxes and put the bags away to be opened by…
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The Shape Of You
I clocked 7000 steps this morning as I circled the first level of my home talking to a friend. We have fallen into this habit, texting and calling most days as I begin my day and she ends hers. Most days, it is a recount of our days, the inane details that I am sure…
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Journeys Of The Mind
I stepped out in the evening sun with my three daughters. It is a ritual I look forward to each evening, at least when the sun is out and the temperatures are warm. We amble along the sidewalk, covering about a hundred homes. We stop and stare at beautiful blooms. We enjoy the birdsong. We…
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Essay: On Loss and, Love
I talk as I walk to the voice on the other end which is a tad weakened as it traverses the eight thousand miles from India to make its way to me. I strain to listen, filling in missed syllables knowing the words she would have used from our years of association. By the time…
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COVID-19 Diaries: Anniversary
Nineteen years is a long time. It is even when you factor in the first few years when you are getting to know the person, the next few years when you are struggling to build a family, the years after that are consumed by nurturing this hard-built family. We have both grown. We have both…