ESsays – reflections – A Life in words
The Blog
Recent Writing
Pages From a Quiet Notebook
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A Flood That Should Have Run Dry
She sat in the waiting room, she twisted her face toward the window so the other patients—the joyful ones, the ones with big bellies—wouldn’t see the tears falling from her eyes.
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You Will Be Enough
If you could go back in time and give your younger self advice, what would it be? I’ve been asked a version of this before, and I’ve asked it of myself. Would I warn her?
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The Cost of Fitting In
Somewhere along the way, a child’s worth stopped being measured by what they achieve, or how they treat other people —and started being measured by the labels on their clothes.
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The Rule of Three
I was raised on my mother’s fear of God. It took me years — and a decade in family court — to build a faith of my own. This is the mantra I found in the wreckage, and the one my twelve-year-old daughter handed back to me when I needed it most.
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Co-Parenting With an Abuser
My mother once told me, “He hates you more than he loves his children.” They were some of the truest words anyone has ever said to me. Our daughters were collateral damage in his campaign to control and unmake my life.
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Until Further Order of the Court
After losing a full day of work dredging up my past and arguing with administrators, I received a phone call from the principal the following morning, with her sincerest apologies. That night, I started my memoir out of sheer frustration.
