It's bad. It's bad on so many levels. Personally, we are ok in our area. A given Israeli's frontline concerns depend on where exactly they are located. For us on this side, the very rare siren in the last 15 years is not much of an issue. That can't be said for every corner of... Continue Reading →
Hi from a new chapter in an old story.
After a year and a half of emotional exhaustion, it's shocking and also not shocking to learn that it's possible to be even more deeply emotionally exhausted. With each passing rocket or gunshot or stabbing or counterstrike, another slice of the next generation loses the chance to grow up not knowing what we know. More... Continue Reading →
Koala update: twelve years
To the boy who is ~5 inches from towering over me, It's getting real. Twelve years of you, of figuring all this out, it's always been real, yes, but now it's puberty real. It's preteen real. It's who is this giant boy in my house real. So we're both navigating it. You have questions, and... Continue Reading →
Zooey update: five years
My youngest turns five today. Zooey, we're full-on into that tug-o-war over getting bigger and staying baby... It's not even day on, day off; it's sometimes in five minute intervals. But I don't begrudge you that; it's been a year of fading boundaries, loose definitions, lost assumptions. Out of everyone, this year might have done... Continue Reading →
Bebe update: ten years
I'd say that over the last decade, this feeling I'm about to describe has always been present in amounts, more often taken for granted - the swath of peace that came with you as a newborn, the displays of empathy that radiated from you as a toddler, the abundance of friendliness you have displayed as... Continue Reading →
Nettles update: seven years
If last year's birthday felt totally eye-glazed and desolate... the year that followed was like being trapped in a box but actually, the box helped you break out while stuck inside. I'm not sure where to begin as far as how you've forged ahead, and continued growing, refusing to fall behind or be let down.... Continue Reading →
Time flies. Time heals. It’s time.
Warning: I don't have anything brilliant to say. I just have a bunch of feelings bubbling up within the 24 hour countdown to President-elect Biden's inauguration. And I haven't gotten political here for years, and I find these topics so complex and my time so limited I can't express them fully here, so I'd prefer... Continue Reading →
Hindsight is, after all, 2020: My end of (the longest) year review
"It's the year of cliche conference names! The year of too-easy cable news slogans! The year that will produce endless 'hindsight is...' memes!" That's what I was saying this time last year. So here we are, and it really wasn't. Something as frivolous as a year's round, meaningful number just... barely came up in 2020.... Continue Reading →
Resolving global conflict, one workplace drama at a time.
How can we turn the experience of workplace conflict into a productive part of our personal, communal, religious and national selves?
On judgment: Permission to strip away the human
During such upheaval, in such uncertain times - we don't have to agree; but do we have to condemn? And if we condemn, do we have to do it while stripping away the human in us?
Koala update: eleven years
Memes and friends and global outlooks warned me that as my son would get older, you'd become less affectionate or more wary of showing emotion. You wouldn't know it by looking around our house...
Zooey update: four years
You might think, Zooey, that as the fourth or last to do something, it would be less exciting. We've seen the others take steps, we've seen the others ride bikes, we've seen the others draw a face for the first time. But that's not what makes you, or any of you, special or interesting; the... Continue Reading →