Little Magpie

chasing shiny objects

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On Love and Parenting

We often think of love in the context of instants: spotting a future partner, walking down the aisle, the smacking reality of a brand new baby handed to us for safekeeping. It's human nature to anticipate these pivotal moments and to inflate them in our minds, allowing them to serve as our definition of a deep and abiding connection to another. . We forget, I think, what a gradual process it is to understand love. All those references to the long-smoldering embers over the sudden spark reiterate ... View Post

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In Defense Of The Blurry Ones

At a recent holiday gathering, my eleven year old temporarily owned an array of miscellaneous items during a white elephant exchange.  Before it was swiped away by a family member, she examined her spoils and found an unused disposable camera.  In an effort to identify the strange item, she read the packaging and still appeared completely perplexed. Several children of the 70s and 80s tried to explain to my little millennial that there was a time when people used cameras with film in them, and ... View Post

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A Cutting Confession (archives)

This post appeared on The Little Magpie in November 2011. The thing about dads is that the good ones are silent, steady and striking in their parenting. Their tactics sort of sneak up on you. I, for example, am a rather predictable mom. And, my mom was also fairly predictable in her expectations of me (although by no means ordinary or predictable overall, as you may have noted if you read last month’s posts on The Glamorous Glennis). My Dad’s best parenting successes snuck up on me. I can ... View Post

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On Fathers and Daughters and Chess

As a pre-teen girl (before I was too cool for these sorts of things), I suffered through many a chess match with my father.  We toiled for what seemed like hours after dinner over the wooden board, and the most exasperating part was the realization that he knew my every move before me. There was nothing like that pregnant pause when I made (or started to make) a move, and he would say “Are you sure?” Well, drat.  No, I wasn’t - I was rash and going for the win, of course. Years later, I ... View Post

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Girl Rising

While my family is originally from Arkansas, we moved around quite a bit when my sister and I were young. We spent portions of our childhood in Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Washington as well as obscure places such as Paramaribo, Suriname (Dutch Guiana) and Kingston, Jamaica. Seeing what we often call "third world" or developing nations firsthand - as a child - was an enlightening experience, and you can bet it has affected my world view in a big way. As I grew up, I had opportunities to backpack ... View Post

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Why I Decided To Tri

This post is ten miles too long. But, sometimes you blog for the rest of the world, and sometimes you blog for yourself. When I first began babbling to friends and family about doing a triathlon *mumblemumble* years ago, most of them ignored me (per usual, since I am known for having a new passion every week) and one or two gamely entertained the idea. My long-suffering husband has both heartily supported me and rolled his eyes at me during past fits and starts. This has been on my life list ... View Post