Olde age

Olde age

Some days, I like to spell olde the archaic way because it feels like it should be a four-letter word. On Monday, I bent to retrieve a small bag of lunchtime veggies from the lowest shelf in our workroom fridge, and I tweaked my back. Crud-ite! As a result, I walked like a tiny old [...]

The shape of water

The shape of water

Yesterday, I called my mom to make alternative plans for our evening swimming date. “What? We’ll be fine,” she said. I glanced back at my cell phone and confirmed that the temperature outside read 58 degrees. “It’s a little chilly, don’t you think?” I said. “Listen, I’m going for my morning swim. If it’s too [...]

Through a new lens

Through a new lens

I spent the morning of my 51st birthday wearing camouflage and hunkered down on the edge of a cornfield. Holding my heavy camera still, eyes trained on the distant stalks, I tried very hard not to laugh at the shrill screech of my husband's turkey call. From the top of my messy hair, stuffed carelessly [...]

On being 50

By tomorrow I will have lived a half a century. It's not the number of years that bothers me, it's the speed at which I racked them up. Somehow, in the happy chaos of scrambled dinners, scattered socks, fun runs, permission slips, committee meetings, and looming deadlines, I must have looked away for a moment. [...]