MUSINGS ON LIFE AND WRITING WITH SARAH BUCKLEITNER
Two months ago, my Grandma Izzy died. She was 97 years old, so it shouldn't necessarily have come as a surprise to me. But it did. It swept me right off my feet. We saw her the weekend prior, and she'd quizzed Jordan about all of the wild animals he'd gotten to see lately at … Continue reading On a Wonderful Woman
To start, a disclaimer: I am not currently pregnant. I'm writing this post for a dear friend, who asked me to show her the lovely parts of pregnancy and childbirth, instead of just the hard parts, as they prepare to grow their family. I also want to be clear that pregnancy is 9 months of … Continue reading On the Poignance of Pregnancy
Jordan and I are ten years into our relationship, and in those ten years, we've lived in four different states and six different towns. Each place we've lived has had a unique culture, one that slowly revealed itself to us over the passing days and interactions. There was Burnsville, Minnesota, with its teeming highways and … Continue reading On Family Culture
Today, on a walk around the block, I ran into the mom of one of my childhood friends. We had the whole gang with us: Linden putzing along in his red and yellow car, Hollis gnawing the strap of his carrier on my back, and Jordan, hand-in-hand with my mom. The gang We chatted for … Continue reading On Collective Grief
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
[I realized recently that most of my posts follow a particular, positive format. In each one, I move from uneducated to educated. Unenlightened to enlightened. Sad to happy. Mournful to hopeful. But not all of life can be a lesson. And not all of life has a happy ending. This post is one that I’ve … Continue reading On Remembering My Mom
[Written about two weeks after L was born. Warning: this post is kinda graphic. Like mucus-plug graphic. Read at your own discretion] I’m sitting here with a snoring baby on my chest. He is warm and soft and heavy—the sort of soft, warm, heavy that is meant to be snuggled close. It’s one of the … Continue reading On Giving Birth
May is drawing to a close, and as its last days near, temperatures soar. It feels like it's been weeks since our last rainfall, and every time I open my weather app, little suns stare back at me. The grass in our backyard is becoming crispy. My garden requires constant drenching with a hose. And … Continue reading On May shadows and sunshine
Being a parent is not what I expected. The word parent is so boring. So blasé. Commonplace, even. Before becoming one, I pictured ill fitting jeans, responsibility, and the exhaustion of serving up mundanity to my children day after live-long day. As far as words go, parent was the opposite of romance in my brain. It was … Continue reading On the Sweeping Emotions of Parenthood
Right now I’m sitting on the couch with the window flung wide open, listening to the symphony of frogs that has congregated outside. It’s been unseasonably wet and warm. In the span of a week, we went from frozen soil and brown, withered plants to green unfurling everywhere. And best of all are the spring … Continue reading On Luck and Loss
Feathery Thoughts 