“Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss”
Alabama Writers Forum, March 5, 2020
“I was just calling to tell you I’m going to be fine. I love you, baby.”
The rest of that conversation is fuzzy now. I believe my father and I spent a half hour or so talking about football—the college season would kick off a week later—and rock music, both among our favorite topics since I was a teenager. I sat on my balcony during that phone call, enjoying a pleasant, late-summer Sunday in Birmingham while my father was confined to an intensive care unit in Florida. I don’t think we discussed much of significance, beyond briefly touching on the unexpected surgery he would undergo the next day.
But I know for certain he ended that call, as he always did, by reminding me of his love.
It was the last time I would hear his voice.
To everything, there is a season
Glenwood Springs Post Independent, March 16, 2017
These seasonal shifts — whether metaphorical or literal — aren’t always welcome. This year in the throes of winter, my family experienced death. My sister Cristin died, unexpectedly, at age 34.
The two months since have been marked by sorrow and confusion. And yet, the world continues to inspire joy. Cheryl and I have discussed how wrong it feels to experience happiness after such loss.
And yet, that’s the privilege of life. Loss shapes us, but
Why I hate politics but love elections
AL.com, March 1, 2016
I spent February managing
Why I’ll be on my yoga mat, not a date, this Valentine’s Day
AL.com, Feb. 14, 2016
Yoga is about relationship: Relationship to self, relationship to your body, relationship to others.
That’s the message one of my teachers focused on as Valentine’s Day approached. It resonates with me: Intense physical movement leaves me no choice to focus on my breath, not my to-do list. I have to choose whether to move deeper into a pose or back off, which requires treating myself kindly. These lessons stay with me outside of the yoga studio.
I’m acutely aware of their value, especially this time of year. I’ve become a cliche: a 34-year-old single woman who complains that everyone in the South marries too young. But like most stereotypes, the image exists because there’s truth to it.
Alabama’s ‘Christmas’ album has called me home for 30 years
AL.com, Dec. 23, 2015
There isn’t a Sunshine State line in “Christmas in Dixie,” the Alabama track that debuted in 1982 and anchored the band’s 1985 “Christmas album.” Although the album released while we still lived in Alabama, I associate it with gathering around the tree in our suburban Florida home. We would often crank up the air conditioning to balance a blaze in the fireplace, decorating the tree in shorts and T-shirts and running outside to unseasonably warm weather with to play with whatever gifts Santa bestowed.