Posts tagged “body

Expectations: Yours, Mine, and Ours

Posted on March 19, 2015

Potentially the most tedious thing about this post is that it is such a tired, damn argument. I’m not the first to write about it, nor will I be the last. I was trucking along, chatting with friends on twitter while I surfed in another window to the side. It was a perfectly lovely time, until an alert came through for a new email. I checked it on my phone.     Presumably the email was sent to make me feel as if the sender and I were tight. Good friends. Real friends. Why? Because together we were going to celebrate a better, truer, more real kind of woman. We were going to feel better by emphasizing one body or lifestyle type as more authentic…

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Why is Self-Care so Hard?

Posted on February 10, 2015

Yesterday was the kind of day that triggers my need for time, or more sinister, ignites my sense that I don’t ever get any time. It was a snow day. The marriage of work and home becomes brittle on snow days, as the things I needed to do for work, the people who I had to talk to still blink at me from my calendar, while the girls’ faces glow from the sensation of getting away with something and the day suddenly having new possibilities; I resent both, which nearly suffocates me with guilt. If I can stay ahead of things I keep panic at bay, which is why after the pre-dawn alert from school I considered things to do. I plotted chores for the girls between snow…

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An Update: Stitch Fix—Imperfectly Wonderful

Posted on January 4, 2015

A while back I wrote a post about Stitch Fix. If it’s not your thing, I get it. I don’t listen to Serial or do Cross Fit, go ahead and skip this one if you need to. I just wanted to share why I still value Stitch Fix as a shopping resource and appreciate that I can use it on my terms. I put my Fixes on hold back in November for a couple for reasons. The first reason being that I was sensitive to non-essential purchases as we moved into the holidays. I wanted the leeway to buy gifts for friends and family, putting this particular me-thing to the side felt good.  The second reason I did it was that I got a fix that…

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Can’t You See You Like I Do?

Posted on December 8, 2014

“Mama, you are so pretty in that shirt,” I turned to look at where the voice had come from and saw Briar. I had known it was her talking, but the words were so out of context with how I was feeling. Her lips were turned up in the sweetest little smile and her eyes danced, happy. “Thank you, sweet love,” I said smiling at her. My smile was genuine, my face calm, but my insides were racing. I’d gone through the morning bedraggled, stretched out pajama bottoms hanging from my frame, a t-shirt with just a tank top underneath, and my hair doing that 40-something, morning halo of kinks. The bags under my eyes taunt me, even after a night of more than…

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This is What My 40s Feel Like

Posted on November 9, 2014

That title is not a sweeping statement for all people in their forties. This is specifically written about me. Navel-gazing, me-me-me in full effect. Largely in part because I have been in a funk and I read this little wisp of wonder over at Cup of Jo and it struck me as incredibly wise. Here are the words: It doesn’t make sense to call ourselves ugly, because we don’t really see ourselves. We don’t watch ourselves sleeping in bed, curled up and silent with chests rising and falling with our own rhythm. We don’t see ourselves reading a book, eyes fluttering and glowing. You don’t see yourself looking at someone with love and care inside your heart. There’s no mirror in your way when…

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