Essays

Here’s something I am: a former undocumented immigrant. Here’s another thing I am: someone who once didn’t speak English. Here’s yet another thing I am: white. Here’s one more thing I am: Latin [...]

In today’s birthing world, no decision about pregnancy and newborns seems easy.  Epidural or not?  Midwife or doctor?  Breastfeeding and pumping, or supplemental formula?  Every decision is [...]

I’ve always been ambivalent about Mother’s Day, but I’ve never been able to put my finger on why that is. Then I read this essay by Anne Lamott and I think I figured it out. As [...]

I don’t deal with bad news well.  No one does, I guess, but I am particularly inept.  I come from a long generation of people who know that things are just not going to end well.  I have dragged [...]

For everyone who has commuted via mass transit into New York City.  Or anywhere else, for that matter. Port Authority, I don’t like how you’re treating me. Let’s start with the [...]

It only takes me 4 days with no power and heat to see violence in a whole new way. I don’t participate in any. Or even consider it, not really. But I feel it bubble up inside me, the call [...]

I’m a faker.  I’m a faker and a poser and, what’s worse, I wear the evidence right on my head.  But it’s so wavy and luscious I can hardly feel bad about it. When I was growing up, my mother told [...]

“Who left the empty yogurt box in the refrigerator?”  I call out in frustration.  Someone has finished the extra large pack of yogurts, and left the bare box in place. There is a studied silence [...]