My mom texted me a video a few days ago featuring a poem about an 80-year-old woman who wakes up to find herself magically back in her 38-year-old body, living one day in her 38-year-old life. She sees her younger body and her small children differently, with the perspective of someone who already knows how … Continue reading Mysterious Beach
Choose Your Heaven
What if Heaven is a moment, captured, that we can stay in forever? What if Hell is a moment, captured, that we cannot bear to leave? What if Heaven and Hell are just moments, Happening all around us all the time? What if Heaven is the moment that held our greatest love, and Hell the … Continue reading Choose Your Heaven
We’re In The Cash-For-Teeth Business
I’m sharing the recent experiences of the O’Neill household in the hope that some of you may avoid learning the same lesson I have recently learned about unintended consequences. This past Christmas, our 10-year-old twins learned the truth about Santa Claus. Being deductive reasoners, they quickly concluded that the Tooth Fairy was also fictional. At … Continue reading We’re In The Cash-For-Teeth Business
The Cattening, Rat Butts, and How We Acquired an Extra Animal: An O’Neill Pet Saga
We have a rat butt problem. No, you didn’t read that incorrectly. Let me explain. Back in early 2020, we decided it was time to add a couple of four-legged members of the household. The right amount of time had passed since we’d said goodbye to our last elderly pet, and apparently raising four-year-old twins … Continue reading The Cattening, Rat Butts, and How We Acquired an Extra Animal: An O’Neill Pet Saga
While We Are Here
I will not have my husband forever. I know this. It hurts my heart but I know this. One day he will be gone. A few years older than I. maybe soon— a car crash, an aneurysm, or decades from now, if grace is kind. But some day I will have to re-learn the shape … Continue reading While We Are Here
Whispers
I don’t know if I believe in reincarnationbut in a way, I find it terrifying -in my darkest moments, with no comfort to be found in believing that, at least some day, all of this will end. Unlearned lessons cannot be left behind,when I shuffle off this mortal coil - no; they will be there, waiting, … Continue reading Whispers
Alchemy
I saw this quote by Sarah Durham Wilson a few days ago, and it’s been stuck in my head: “Theway you alchemize a soulless world into a sacred world is by treating everyone asif they are sacred, until the sacred in them remembers.” This idea speaks to me, for so many reasons. It’s the Golden … Continue reading Alchemy
Light Through the Cracks
As a perfectionist, I put a lot of pressure on myself. A completed project could always be done better, a piano piece practiced more, a meal better cooked. As someone who has lived with perfectionism for a lifetime, it goes without saying that I’ve always seen mistakes that I've made as bad – signs that … Continue reading Light Through the Cracks
My Buddhist Gift
Research professor, lecturer and author Brene Brown has said, “You can choose courage or you can choose comfort, but you cannot have both.” I’ve dealt with chronic anxiety my whole life. I intensely overthink, worry, play out hypothetical situations to the “nth” degree, and lose sleep. This anxiety has transcended all aspects of my life … Continue reading My Buddhist Gift
Sharis
I was homeschooled when I was a kid. This was in the late 80s, early 90s, before the internet or the wide array of networks and social activities available to connect homeschooling families. Without the resources available now, my parents had to figure out how to do it on their own. Academically, they did pretty … Continue reading Sharis
Pocket Sized 