Our first night in the cabin, dehydrated and weary, we line up our mattresses on the unfinished floor. Our eyelids are heavy, but we steal a few pre-bedtime minutes for shadow puppets on the wall. We are here, we whisper. Finally here.| Design For Mankind
We finish The Hobbit. We bring home a farm mutt called Louie, supply dozens of lone socks for his milk teeth. I drive Ken to the airport at 6am, an errand that feels more familiar than either of us want it to. The kids and I attend six weeks’ worth of expected celebrations solo –| Design For Mankind
I order tomato seeds from Italy. I write a poem to my daughter’s friend. I meander through downtown gardens with my husband and youngest, popping in for a London Fog from a boutique hotel a few blocks away. While waiting for the barista, I people-watch, pretending I am just another tourist in a lobby full| Design For Mankind
A poem for the woman in the co-op fumbling for an avocado, and for the right words. Stage 4, she says into the phone. “Now is the time to know That all that you do is sacred. Now, why not consider A lasting truce with yourself and God. Now is the time to understand| Design For Mankind
The weather turned quickly after unseasonable warmth, and last year’s burgeoning woodpile beckoned an early burn. So we burned. Morning fires on repeat, three times over, until the wax preserve drips clean from a child’s leaf garland. A wonderful mess, scraping beeswax from brick. We resign to flameless candles until leaves are swapped for winter| Design For Mankind
The weather turned quickly after unseasonable warmth, and last year’s burgeoning woodpile beckoned an early burn. So we burned. Morning fires on repeat, three times over, until the wax preserve drips clean from a child’s leaf garland. A wonderful mess, scraping beeswax from brick. We resign to flameless candles until leaves are swapped for winter| Design For Mankind
We had been preparing for a move, a temporary one, in which we would spend our first summer sleeping on a raw 160 acres of newness, of mountains, of yarrow. And all was in tumult. Ken and I were juggling our own proverbial spheres – he, putting finishing touches on a rental property – me,| Design For Mankind