The Pleasure of a Day That Doesn’t Need to Become Anything
Some days don’t need to make us healthier, wiser or more productive. A reflection on movies, bookstores, undefended time and the pleasure of enjoying something simply because you do.
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The Little Things That Make a Life Feel Like Yours
The routines that make a life feel like ours are rarely remarkable. Hot cocoa. An open curtain. A made bed. Two Yorkies reporting to work. Maybe ordinary life doesn’t need to accomplish anything more than feeling like our own.
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The Things We Learn Over Dinner
George ate a mushroom on our first date. Years later, I learned he hates them. A story about Italian food, marriage and the ordinary things we learn about someone over dinner.
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Mindfulness Is Simpler Than You Think
I can give an antique cabinet my undivided attention and lose my breath within seconds. Maybe mindfulness isn’t about perfect focus after all. Maybe it’s simply noticing when we’ve wandered—and coming back.
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I Love It. But Does It Belong Here?
I go into antique stores with measurements, a tape measure and a plan. None of these protects me from squirrels. A story about collecting what you love—and knowing what actually belongs.
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Enough to Know
Sometimes belonging comes from people who know only one small corner of our lives. A story about two beloved dogs, a veterinary office and what it means to be known well enough.
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The Garden We Weren’t Going to Plant
We weren’t going to plant a garden this year. Then spring came, George bought plants, and apparently that was the end of that. A story about growing food, sharing abundance and the garden that became part of dinner.
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When Life Is Too Much: What Is Still Yours to Choose
There was water under the basement floor, one dog was throwing up, the other pooped in the pet store and I was late for work. Sometimes when everything needs you, the most useful question is smaller: What actually needs me right now?
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My Meatball Recipe Comes From a Former Mob Boss
I found my meatball recipe the way all respectable home cooks do: from a former mob boss. Somehow his grandmother’s Christmas Eve meatballs became part of the food of our house.
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A Home Collected Over Time
A home can’t really be collected all at once. Mine has accumulated through antique stores, different states and different versions of me—and somewhere along the way, the things I’ve collected began collecting my history, too.
