cultivating the beautiful ordinary by sharing our tales and our tables
I have a black-and-white photo of my grandmother from the 1940s that I treasure. She’s dressed in pants and a flannel, kneeling in the grasses of an Oklahoma prairie, focused on something ahead. Balanced on her shoulder is a rifle of some sort. Her hair is short and curled, messy from the breeze. And though…
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The sun dances across my lap. The old Honda’s engine revs and releases around the curves of Lake Crescent. Turquoise waters on my right shimmer clearly against the evergreens next to its shore. I count the logs cast aside into the lake’s bottomless waters. Just past the upcoming campground we will take a hard right…
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I am done proving me. My life is not one prolonged job interview, a permanent Olympic trial, an ongoing all-state music audition. I am not a college application for admissions officials to peruse, an employee scrutinized for business acumen or her annual performance review, an associate striving to make partner. I refuse to be
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Dreams awaiting daylight. I have so many. Planted in the secret, quiet confines of a tender heart. But how do you dream anew after years of hopes unanswered? After giving your all and coming so close but it not being quite enough? How do you dare ask for the impossible, when you’re battered and bruised?…
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I still remember the knots that formed in my stomach as my 16th birthday approached. To me, it felt high stakes. I wanted to invite everyone—guys and girls, my crush and his friends, favorite teachers, friends in college and beyond it. I wanted to throw a party people showed up to. I wanted to be a…
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At the start of every school year, I ask my middle school students to prepare a brief “About Me” assignment to introduce themselves. I ask them to share a couple of fun personal facts, a bit about their families, and a few adjectives describing themselves.
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“What’s your deepest fear?” the survey asked. I chuckled. “All of the fears,” was my response.
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Ash Wednesday. A chalked smearing of celebration tasted—now absent, ached for, and anticipated.
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“Have you tried online dating?”
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I’m not particularly self-contained when I am happy. “Graceful” would not be the word of choice. At my brightest moments, I tend to jump, bounce, giggle, fling, or shout.
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