Two days after giving birth, when we arrived back at our house and I burst into tears overwhelmed by the enormity of how my life had just changed, and how I was now responsible for a little being who depended on me for her survival and whom I was still learning to feed, hold, and…
Miami
Beauty from Birth
At our childbirth prep class on Sunday I bravely asked the visiting pediatrician the question my husband wanted answered, but was too shy to articulate: When is it appropriate to pierce the baby’s ears? We had already covered how soon a baby can fly in an airplane, and spent 10 minutes on the pros and…
Swimming Upstream During Miami Swim Week
In life, if not yet in art, I have mastered the art of irony. And all it took was managing to be eight months and three weeks pregnant during the cultural phenomenon that is Miami Swim Week. I mean, just look at this photo. That girl and I, we’re the same genus and species. The…
Oedipus Wrecks or Oh, How the Mighty Have Swollen
At almost nine months pregnant (I’m pushing 35 weeks), I’ve been thinking a lot about Oedipus. Not because I’m carrying a son whom we plan to abandon in the mountains shortly after birth in order to avoid a prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother. That’s what happened to Oedipus, and…
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America the Bootyfull, and Other 4th of July Musings
When I was 22 and visiting my parents in Grafton, Massachusetts, I trotted down the stairs the Friday before Fourth of July and announced, “I’m only going to wear red, white, and blue all weekend!” “OK, dork,” my cousin replied. She was right; it was a totally geeky thing to say. But it was the…
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When Holidays Attack
As is probably clear, given that this blog is devoted to rituals, traditions, and rites of passage, I thoroughly enjoy a good holiday. But I was just forced to acknowledge that there are certain holidays that cause some of us to run screaming in the other direction. I’m not talking about the holiday blues that…