Two years ago, as October faded to a close, I felt myself fading with it. After a marathon of school, church, birthday, and holiday events, I needed to recharge. That was the beginning of what’s become my annual November Slowdown. Each year, about this time, I step back from the breakneck pace of life and ask myself: Where am I feeling rubbed…
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There’s a frog in my chest. It hops around, especially at night, and on bad days makes me feels like a wrung-out dishcloth. The technical term for this frog is Premature Ventricular Contractions, or PVCs. They’re extra, abnormal heartbeats that are essentially harmless to a structurally normal heart, like mine. I’ve had them since puberty, but didn’t give them a…
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The first time I took Annabell to the beach, she was a toddler. We stood in the foamy shallows of the surf, my hands swallowing her chubby wrists. As waves tumbled toward us, her body was a coiled spring, taut with mingled terror and delight. I hoisted her airborne, her little feet swinging high over the water. She squealed and giggled, all…
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A few years ago, around the time we decided to adopt, I started getting restless. I don’t know why or how, but life had begun to feel like a pair of ill-fitting pants. Our adoption progressed, we traveled to Rwanda, and the feeling intensified. In the years that followed, it overtook everything. I walked around with this disorienting sense of…
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I’m usually “done” with winter by January 1, and this year is no exception. I miss the sun’s warmth on my bare arms, the scent of earth and vegetation, the freedom to walk out the door without first layering against the cold. But it snowed yesterday, and even through a New England childhood I can’t recall beauty like this. Flakes…
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