cultivating the beautiful ordinary by sharing our tales and our tables
I lay on the table in my surgeon’s office, the cape draped around my shoulders open, exposing the breast that is being biopsied today. As my doctor enters the room with her characteristic warm greeting, I feel a rush of gratitude for both the expertise and kindness I have experienced in her care over the…
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About a year ago, my literary soulmate, Bridget, who had moved away, was struggling. A close friend of ours, Julie, was facing a cancer recurrence, and the prognosis was grim. Torn about returning for a visit, she recalled a quiche she had once made that Julie had loved—it was the only thing Julie could eat…
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I walk into the office, sit, and face my therapist. The books behind her chair are neatly arranged in their same places. We exchange our familiar greetings. I try to speak. Her face fades, and I see pink water dancing on broad palm leaves. Giggles from small children echo. I hear my wily brother. He…
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Sometimes I wonder whether I’ve read so much nineteenth-century literature written by women that I’ve started to live out the plot of some of my favorite books. Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women was a favorite of mine. My uncle bought me a beautiful copy when I turned 10, and I read and re-read that lovely,…
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Before the pandemic reached the US, there was news informing us, pumping fear into our veins as we anxiously tried to prepare. We watched as it moved closer and closer to home until we heard about the first case reported in our state and then learned about the first person we knew who was infected…
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I sat on the couch in our therapist’s office trying to figure out what I wanted to say. My spouse couldn’t come but lovingly noted that I had been “very stressed” lately and maybe I should get everything off of my heart and mind. I knew my head and heart were full of thoughts and…
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The afternoon air is sweltering as I do a cannonball and make a volcanic splash in the diving pool. I can feel the goosebumps on my arms expand like cones on an evergreen as I sink down into the frigid, dark, ominous water. I am taking my Junior Life Saver test, and I need to…
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*Trigger warning that today’s post contains a story of sexual violence. Through very little thought or planning on my part, my work life fell into place and eventually developed into a career plan. When I was twenty, I started working in a clerical job at a federal law enforcement agency, and over the next eight…
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It was Certification Day, our first of several. I had been planning a distinct route for a smooth and predictable path. As far as I was concerned, there would be no detours. I was eager to get on our Zoom call later that afternoon. A month earlier, I had begun training to be a guide…
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I interviewed for my graduate program without planning to. You see, I was on a mission. Ever since watching a documentary on sex slavery in India that turned my world upside down, I had been meeting with a few counseling graduate students at my husband’s school. We combed through magazine ads and randomly drove down…
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