MUSINGS ON LIFE AND WRITING WITH SARAH BUCKLEITNER
It's Wednesday night--almost 10 p.m. on Wednesday night--and I'm sitting on the couch next to a sleepy cat and a husband who's absorbed in a book. For the last few months, I've had posts for this blog scheduled out for weeks, and sometimes months, at a time. But over time, sick kids, travel, and the … Continue reading On Catching Up
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
Back when I worked in the animal shelter, I encountered a new concept: sometimes, when someone who frequently fostered animals in their home reached out to see if they could foster another, we'd talk about their "Capacity for Care." Meaning--did that person have the time, space and energy to properly care for an additional responsibility? … Continue reading On Capacity for Care
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 I was unloading the dishwasher, sorting forks and spoons into their rightful places in the silverware tray, not really thinking about anything in particular--maybe about how unloading the dishwasher is such a boring, adult activity--when something about a mug I was holding made me think of my mom. I don't know if it was … Continue reading On Grief and Coffee Mugs
Note from future-Sarah: This post was written before our move from Georgia to New Jersey, in 2022. Since then we've moved again (though hopefully for the last time), and again grappled with the roots we severed and the places we'll miss. I decided to finally publish it because it still rings true, and I thought … Continue reading On Creativity in Times of Turmoil
Note: I wrote this post while pregnant with our first child, L. It's funny to look back on it years later, with three children sleeping upstairs and an overflowing toy bin in the next room. We've continued to try and be somewhat minimalist in our philosophy about stuff for kids, even while our lives are … Continue reading On Foregoing a Nursery
Last week, I read an article on hobbies that talked about the fact that most people struggle to pick them up and then keep going. As someone who has both glommed onto my hobbies as a central, shaping force in my life, and abandoned hobbies (like the guitar I tried to pick up in college), … Continue reading On Picking Up Hobbies
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
Feathery Thoughts 