Saving my life: winter 2020 edition.

It’s become a midwinter tradition: every February, dozens of us link up with Anne Bogel to answer a brilliant question (from Barbara Brown Taylor): “What is saving your life now?” I make these lists periodically throughout the year (the act of making them can itself be lifesaving), but I always need the reminder in midwinter. […]

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Saving my life: air travel edition.

  Every December, I pack a big suitcase and travel down to Texas to spend the holidays with my family. (I make this journey two or three times a year, but Christmas is the big one.) It’s always something of an odyssey, and it’s never without a headache or two. But there are a few […]

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saving my life: mid-November edition.

We’ve had nearly a week of grey skies and misty rain – yesterday was the first sunny day since last Saturday. I finally felt I could breathe again. In between meetings, construction noise at work and cooking dinner, here’s what is saving my life now: Fresh pomegranates – seeding them is somehow satisfying, and the […]

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saving my life: suddenly fall edition.

Here we are in October – the days and nights are starting to draw in, the maples are turning brilliantly red, the occasional cold rains have arrived, and fall events are in full swing. I’m feeling more settled in my new place, and between commutes and running and cooking dinner, I finally had a bit […]

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saving my life: post-move, deep summer edition.

It’s August, somehow, and I’m in full summer mode: iced chai, tan lines and freckles (and lots of sunscreen), stovetop cooking (when I cook anything), and all the berries I can eat. Here’s what’s saving my life, in these hot, hazy, still-transition-filled days: Late-summer flowers: black-eyed Susans, deep blue and pink hydrangeas, the first dahlias, […]

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Saving my life: winter 2019 edition.

A few years ago – around the same time, I think – Anne Bogel and I both discovered Barbara Brown Taylor’s brilliant question: what is saving your life now? I made it the subject of my Morning Prayers talk at Harvard, two springs ago, and Anne has made it a tradition to host a linkup […]

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saving my life: just enough edition.

It has been (yet) another stretch of challenge and change here – though the new job is making a little more sense these days. And despite some heartening headlines from last week’s election (more women, more diversity, higher voter turnout), it’s been (another) hellishly hard week or two to be in the world. That’s how […]

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saving my life: Back Bay edition.

I’m into the eighth week at my new job, and I get asked all the time: How is it? Are you settling in? Do you like it? The answers to all these questions are mostly positive, but alongside them is another truth: adjusting to a new neighborhood has been hard. My first job in the […]

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saving my life: one puzzle piece at a time edition.

Jen posted recently on Instagram that some seasons feel like this: being knocked to the ground and having all your pieces scattered, like a puzzle. When this happens, the pieces often will not come together again in the same way. You can know this, and still not have any idea what the new picture will […]

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Saving my life: almost-too-small-to-mention edition.

March blew in like a lion with two wild, wet nor’easters back to back, and no lack of responsibilities at work and at home. As I navigate these blustery days, here’s a handful of tiny things, like bits of glitter, that are saving my life now: That first sip of Darwin’s chai in the morning, […]

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