How do you know? How do you come to that moment, when you raise your hand and say, “I’m done?” One of my wiser friends said, “When the moment comes, and there will be one, you’ll...
Menopause Spurs Thoughts of Death and Turkey
There’s a huge difference between perimenopause and menopause; chiefly, during perimenopause you only think about killing your husband three to four times a day. Kidding! I meant three to...
Interview
Though they are performing social graces and curtsying, they are determined to assist in racial and gender equality. It’s very inspiring when you think about it.
Kilim Beige: The Making of An Empty Nest in Five Parts
The thing that no one tells you about your children leaving home is that it’s not clean. They don’t just go on the prescribed day. You are not allowed to begin moving on the next day,...
Pandemic Hair
Mike understood my hair. Lifting a wispy handful, he discussed his ambitions for it as respectfully as if I were Lady Godiva, not an oldster whose mop might whoosh from her scalp like...
A Feeling to Name
But it turns out that goodbyes are the only predictable part of army life. A goodbye may be delayed or rescheduled, the drop-off location may change, but on the other end of it I know I...
Real Estate / Unreal Estate
How do you sell a house when you have an instinct for places you’ve been happy, a variation on what Italians call the sta casa gene? Furtively, and with considerable angst that will lead,...
Three Quinceañeras in My Family
Whether we celebrate it formally or not, the celebration of coming of age is a passage that is recognized across cultures.
When I Was a Dancing Girl in Lahore
I think I adopted, starting in Pakistan, a protective layer that I’ve worn during my life as a dancer. You sheath yourself with it and don’t let anyone in; you go about your steps and...
Change: Bringing Us Back to Who We Were Meant to Be
I learned that change can be a really good thing. We can shift, we can evolve, we can grow within the seasons of our life, and shape ourselves into the person we always wanted to be.
At no time of year is the transition to a new season as dramatic as that of autumn. The blaze of leaves sends unmistakable signals to every species of fauna and flora to prepare for winter. Perhaps that is why, for humans, it is a time for reflection and taking stock, especially at the end of a second year when a pandemic forced us all to reevaluate our priorities and drove so many of us to make momentous decisions about transitions in our lives. Some retired or found new careers, some moved across the country, some divorced. But transitions can also mark a joyful coming of age or a bittersweet empty nest, and as such they are as much a part of life as the changing seasons.