I’ve been lurking in the corners of Petit Elefant for a few months, here and listening, but not participating in a way you, as readers, can see. I’ve been going through some health stuff, privately, and I’m ready to be back here in this great community, better than ever. I have a lot of feelings about a lot of things, almost all of them completely happy and joyful and peaceful, totally wonderful. I’ve hesitated sharing anything quite yet, but I…
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Do you have a very favorite smell? Like, you go into a bookstore and breathe in a huge, yoga type breath, and you’re transported by the smell of new books and coffee to a happy place? I have a few of those smells in my life. Apple scented candles transport me instantly to back-to-school time; something about apples being ripe and being canned in my mother’s kitchen when I was a child, right around the time I started school every…
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Before you even read this, know that every comment and social media share on this post (and all #Blogust posts) is equal to a vaccine for children across the world. Please share and comment. I’ve talked a bit about the very difficult year we’ve had at the Czarnecki household, and the profound effect it has had on our family. Our baby girl (she’s nearly 15) has been ill since last winter, and since then we’ve gone through every possible test,…
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You want to make this beach sand souvenir for yourself. I know, because, well, if the amount of sand we shake out of our suitcases, vacuum out of the car and wash out of our hair every summer is any kind of indicator, then we are definitely a family of beachcombers. And no matter whether we drive to a local lakeside beach or fly to a more far flung oceanside locale, our modus operandi is always the same: build sandcastles that…
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A few weeks ago I went to see this movie, About Time (a film from Richard Curtis, the creator of Love Actually, Notting Hill, and Four Weddings and a Funeral). I love Rachel McAdams and romantic movies and was super stoked to see it, (check out the About Time movie trailer, good grief, you’ll want to go see it asap). But it’s totally not a romantic movie (it is and it isn’t), it’s mostly an amazing movie about how to live…
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I am loved. What does that do to you when you hear it, read it, feel it? I hope it’s a visceral reaction in your gut, that feeling loved business. Because when you’re loved the way you deserve to be, it can be a breathless and dizzying, electric, glorious experience. OR. Or the feel of being loved, really truly and properly, can be a glowing ember of toasty warm content. The act of feeling loved can be safety from fear,…
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Good news is something we’re all searching for today, high and low. Yesterday was a rough day in the news, and as usually happens when something tragic and horrible takes place, the tragic bombing yesterday at the Boston Marathon got me thinking about my life in a philosophical way. As I tucked my little son Charming into bed last night, I tried to refrain from weeping as I repeated to him the words another mother, Mister Fred Rogers’ told him…
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2012 is almost over, (thank everything) so let’s talk. What did we learn this year? What did YOU learn in 2012? Is there anything you’d like to do-over in 2013? My list is huge, but I guess every year we live and learn and try again to do it bigger, and better, and kinder than the year before. 2012 was a rough year for me. I tried hard to make it a healthy one, but you know. Some years Stupid…
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Today I’m feeling wistful for the happy summers of my youth. Those carefree days of running through sprinklers in the front yard of my childhood home, wearing a hand-me-down swimsuit from one of my sisters, pieces of wet grass stuck between my toes. The sunny days of eating Popsicles on burning cement sidewalks, hot ridges of concrete patterns imprinting on the back of my legs, watching forlornly as fallen chunks of Popsicle melted in the gutter. I roamed the neighborhood…
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