The ability to share so much of our lives--and to seek fulfillment and acknowledgment from another person miles away behind a screen--is a double edged sword. Whenever we're bottling up ourselves and our lives and our loved ones into an Instagram feed or a blog, we need to be very careful.
As the wife of a wildlife biologist, I know more about the comings and goings of the whitetail deer in our neighborhood than I'd like. Every time we ease around the corner of the wooded bend in the road near our house, Jordan studies the trees.
You know that annoying song they make you sing in preschool, "Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other's gold"? I'm here to report, after 27 years of observation and assessment: the annoying song is right. Old friends are gold. So here's a tribute to one of my oldest and … Continue reading On Old Friends
What do you want out of life? For me, the answer to this question has always been small and big at the same time. I don't want a mansion. I don't want a big, shiny car. I don't want to be president, or to walk on the moon, or even to be anyone's boss. I … Continue reading On A Small, Good Life
In honor of National Dog day: the winding, not-super-linear story of how Wren came into our lives. I've written tomes about Chara, but I'm not sure that I've ever told Wren's story. And it's a great one: full of love and hardship and challenges overcome. When I first met Wren, we weren't looking for a … Continue reading On three-legged dogs
What does your typical morning look like? If you're anything like me two months ago, it went like this: the alarm goes off. You snooze it. And snooze it again. And again. Finally, the dogs click-clack cheerfully into the room, demanding to be let out. You extract yourself from the sweaty, sweet nest of your … Continue reading On Habits
When I was eighteen, my dad invented something called "slack leashing." Slack leashing is a sport involving one human, one dog, and a leash. You clip the leash on the dog like you're going to go for a walk, but instead of the human setting the pace, you have to allow the dog to set … Continue reading On Being Raised by Two Developmental Psychologists
