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Showing posts from September, 2014

The Washington Post On Parenting

Friends, we’re up on The Washington Post tonight. Let me just pause and say that again because I really can’t believe it myself. My Jenn-eration is up on The Washington Post! I am filled with gratitude this evening for the opportunity to share our story about the power of broken roads with their audience. You can read more here .

The Power of a Broken Road

The other day I went for one of those really great walks. It wasn’t one with purpose or the sweaty, blood pumping to the heart kind of walks. It was just one of those rolling about the neighborhood with the iPod in my ears and my mind on shuffle. As I walked, one of my favorite songs came on: Rascal Flatts “Bless the Broken Road.” I’m not usually a country person but this song just breaks me open in all the best possible ways every time I hear it. Ruby calls it the sad song because the piano intro sounds slightly melancholy to four year old, relatively happy go-lucky untarnished ears. But I always explain that in fact it is a beautiful, if not joyous song about finding and treasuring love because it was earned on a hard path. I was walking a pretty hard path when I arrived in New York City on September 8, 2001. My parents dropped me off at an illegal sublet with approximately six weeks’ worth of my own savings to live on and no job. If I didn’t find one before the cash ran out, I ha

The Post Where I Make You Feel Better About Yourself

You know all those glossy Instagram photos that show up all over your twitter and Facebook feeds and you find yourself secretly feeling a little bit bad about yourself or your house or your body or your kids or what you are feeding your kids or whatever?   This is for you.   You’re welcome. (ps – this doesn’t even bother me! Because I am looking at this horrific picture of my kitchen at 6:30pm on a Tuesday with what Glennon Melton at Momastery calls perspectacles . Who cares about the mountain of filth in my kitchen? Check out that awesome baby eating dirt off my floor?! Have a great Wednesday people. Feel grateful J )

Free of Facebook, Not of My Self

It all started a few weeks ago. Creatively, I was struggling. I felt my writing slipping; the quality, the motivation. Every time I would log on to Facebook, so much of my newsfeed would be a dialogue about who was published where, when their next post, next book, next big thing was coming. I was starting to feel crushed by the weight of other people’s next big things. I blamed Facebook for my not having big things lined up and for feeling angst toward people who did have big things lined up. So I decided to take a Facebook-acation. The thing about giving up Facebook is that it is both freeing and frustrating. It is way more challenging than it should be. When I went off the site, I wasn’t exactly sure how long it would be for though I was almost certain it wouldn’t be terribly protracted and that I would be back. In general, I don’t believe in cutting stuff completely out of my life. I was never a big fan of no meat, no dairy, no TV, no anything. I fancy myself more of a moderation