Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Tag: motherhood
Things My Mother Taught Me — Partly on Purpose
My mother taught me many things she didn’t know she was teaching me and probably had no intention of teaching me. She also tried to teach me things I had no interest or ability to learn. This is suggestive of a lot of crossed… Continue Reading “Things My Mother Taught Me — Partly on Purpose”
Rats
This is a piece I wrote a long time ago. Just reread it because I was desperate for something to bring to my writing group tomorrow. It was written before I quit swearing so much. Anyway, here it is. Rats. ________________ This is a… Continue Reading “Rats”
Ducks
A few weeks ago, this mama duck was swimming solo. Her life on Little Lake Harbor on Lake Superior was sweet, uncomplicated. She paddled, ate, sat in the sun, floated with her friends, watched boats come and go and took care of herself. Then… Continue Reading “Ducks”
Heavy Lifting: Fifty Years of Mothering
I’m impressed you could carry that baby with one arm up the stairs. The baby actually has two arms but I get your drift. You’re surprised an old lady can carry a 24 pound baby on her hip and still hold on to the… Continue Reading “Heavy Lifting: Fifty Years of Mothering”
My Mamas
I love the mothers who failed but didn’t run away, maybe they drove to the end of the drivewayand then put the car in park. The mothers who had one too manywho forgot tomorrow is Easterand there are no chocolate bunniesbut there are eggs… Continue Reading “My Mamas”
Finding the Words, the Beautiful Words
This morning I wanted to remember Kahlil Gibran’s writing about children because I have been feeling lately like a life raft where all the people who were hanging on have swum away but they don’t want me to pull up anchor yet because they… Continue Reading “Finding the Words, the Beautiful Words”
I Get Toya Graham
Do I think Toya Graham is a hero? No. I think she’s a mom who went completely off her nut when she caught her son throwing rocks at the police in Baltimore. And I get that. I really do. She saw him in a… Continue Reading “I Get Toya Graham”
Dear Young Mom
Dear young mom, You look at me and see a grandmother who had her chance. You figure what I could tell you about being a mother would begin and end with a rotary phone. Nothing I know would apply now in this whole different… Continue Reading “Dear Young Mom”
Let’s Run This Lap Together
The disproportionality of the motherhood experience just smacks me in the face sometimes. We all start pretty much equal, right? We’re young women in our twenties, we get connected to someone, maybe get married, feel suddenly completely impelled to have children, impelled as if… Continue Reading “Let’s Run This Lap Together”
Lift the Anchor
Captain Nan’s was one of a dozen beautiful white boats bobbing in their slips on a dock lit by tiny white Christmas lights. Her sign said she did tours of Islamorada and that’s what I wanted. After years of staying in the same tiny… Continue Reading “Lift the Anchor”
Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
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