MUSINGS ON LIFE AND WRITING WITH SARAH BUCKLEITNER
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
We woke to slate grey skies and helterskelter leaves flapping violently on their twigs in the trees. Jenna and I had been having a celebratory post-MCAT sleep over (complete with sticky buns, Oreos, Tarzan, and the Office) and as she rolled over to check her phone, her eyes got wide. "There's a tornado warning!" she … Continue reading On the business of survival
In our busy, modern lives, there isn’t much space for our brains to function free from stimulus. There’s constantly something: a text conversation with a friend who lives across the country, a quick perusal of Instagram, a podcast we’re listening to, a book that we’ve just picked up. Dinner to be made, dishes to be … Continue reading On Training Your Brain
The older I get, the more common the pregnancy and birth announcements become on my Facebook: pictures of newborns swaddled in blankets, tiny baby shoes posed next to bigger adult shoes in the same style. Clever puns with spaghetti sauce (Prego, oh boy). But there are a few friends and acquaintances who have made baby … Continue reading On Not Wanting Kids
You know those mornings when you wake up before the alarm, and the windows are still cloaked in cool nighttime colors? This is one of those mornings. Yesterday was almost one--I woke up before my alarm, but then I succumbed to exhaustion and closed my eyes again. That's the fatal mistake. It sets you up … Continue reading Gratitude and un-Gratitude: August
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
I am sad. It pours out of me in gasps and chokes, a geyser of emotion too strong to stopper up. Each year it lies in wait. Quiet, tame. Masked by boredom with the details, the mundanity of every day life. And then, as his tires crunch gravel outside the window, and the door closes solidly … Continue reading On Goodbyes
Here in Mississippi, spring is on its way. The air is balmy and warm, birds flitter around our feeder, and Chara's fur gathers in tumbleweeds in the corners of our home. These changes, along with talk of New Year's resolutions, always turn my thoughts to the future. What's the outcome I see for myself? What … Continue reading On wanting what you have
I recently participated in a contest on Instagram--meant to raise money for the super cool Conservation Canines group, which uses rescue dogs to conduct research (click the link to learn more!). The prompt of the contest was simple, and it's a common theme for contests all throughout the dog-obsessed world of Instagram: Post a picture of … Continue reading The nature of nature
Feathery Thoughts 