The Gift I Wish Someone Had Given Me When My Daughter Was Sick
When Sherry got sick people were incredibly kind. They showed up for her in the ways people show up — the meals and the messages and the cards and the…
hard-seasons
What to Give the Woman Who Has Already Survived the Hard Part
There’s a woman in your life who has already been through something. You know who she is. You don’t always talk about it directly — that’s not how it works…
What Happens When the Plan Falls Apart (And You Don’t)
I was a planner. Past tense intentional — not because I’ve stopped planning entirely, but because the version of me that existed before the diagnosis had a relationship with plans…
Soft Fabrics, Hard Days, No Pretending
Some days are just hard. Not dramatically hard. Not crisis hard. Just the regular, unglamorous, nobody-is-going-to-write-a-memoir-about-this kind of hard that is actually most of life when you’re paying honest attention…
What I Wear When I’m the One Holding Everything Together
There is a particular kind of woman who gets dressed in the morning with everyone else in mind. She checks the weather for the kids. She thinks about whether she…
Why I Almost Didn’t Go Back — And Why I Did
There was a version of me that didn’t go to law school. She existed for about six months after the surgery. She was tired and scared and seriously reconsidering every…
I Walked Across That Stage. I Just Had Brain Surgery First
Graduation was supposed to be a Thursday in May. I’d thought about it more than I’d admitted to anyone. The dress — I had one picked out. The shoes. The…
The Day I Stopped Explaining My Detour and Started Owning It
For a long time I explained myself a lot. Not in the obvious way. Not in the way where you stand up and give a speech about everything you’ve been…
What Basically Fine Means to the Woman in the Waiting Room
Nobody talks about the waiting room. Not the physical one — though I spent enough time in that one to know every detail of it. The chairs. The particular quality…
What It Actually Felt Like to Hear “Five Brain Aneurysms” at 21
I remember the exact moment because it’s the kind of moment you don’t forget. Not because it was dramatic. Actually it was the opposite of dramatic. I was sitting in…
