Posts by Jennifer Dougan
Forgotten Arts in a Sweltering Underbelly Week
Chip bags crinkle and closet doors squeak as family members grab evening snacks behind me. Condensation coats my narrow glass, puddling on the desk below, and ninety-degree weather hangs heavy on the twilight. “Watch the trees,” my friend advised me earlier this week. “When the leaves go belly-side up,there’s a storm coming.” Peeking out my…
Read MoreThree-Tiered Living– It’s Worth it
She drives up wearing pink oval sunglasses, blonde hair pulled into a loose pony tail. Jumping out of the car, N* ambles up, greeting us, and nodding warmly at the younger teen she is picking up. Taller with shorter; a woman in her twenties with a teen in high school, they are headed out on…
Read MoreWhat to Bring to College with You (& Maybe With Us Each Day too?)
White terry dish-cloths lie haphazardly across orange dish soap, green scratch pads, and his very first “sauce pan” to make pasta and eggs. “Have I taught you how to boil noodles?” I ask. We choose four white plates (“Wide enough to hold lots of food, Mom”), two large red-rimmed bowls deep enough to hold steaming…
Read MoreWhat Your Body May Be Trying to Tell You
I find myself on edge and the grief hovers. During dappled sunlit blackberry-forages in the woods with friends and the welcome distraction of iced tea conversations, my thoughts and feelings are put on hold. But in the silences and lulls that follow, I pull up world news footage and read with horror of child soldiers…
Read MoreWhat Teens are Saying about the Bible
He raises his hand vigorously, vaulting himself slightly off the floor in excitement. At a youth group open forum night, the crumpled paper question asked, “How much time should you spend reading the Bible?” and my eldest let others speak for a bit, and then jumped into the fray as well. “We were built for…
Read MoreDon’t Let Fear of Looking Foolish Stop You
Glassy highrise buildings slipped past, mirroring the sky. Parallel-parking beside joggers and bicyclists at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis, we piled out of the car, carrying roller blades, a folded stroller, and a brown paper bag of hot bagels. On our last days of vacation– this segment of the “stay-cation”–we were all intentionally making family memories…
Read MoreThe Best Parenting Advice This Week
This notion that restarts are always available, that second chances are never out of supply? It is revolutionary. A friend of mine (details changed for privacy) adopted a young boy from Eastern Europe, and he arrived in the United States, wrapped in institutionalized ideas. Chestnut hair framed serious eyes, and tremulous smiles broke out like…
Read MoreWhen You’re at an Impasse in a Decision
We’re stuck, my man and I. At an impasse, and we circle to it again and again these last four days. At the coffee-shop over my dark French roast, in the car on our way home from an errand, and whispered in the dark at night before bed. We have a decision to make that…
Read MoreWalls, Writing,and What You were Made For
It’s the original walls. This home, built thirteen years ago by Russian hands. This home in which we’re the third owners, third occupants. (Photos above not of my home. See credits below) Foreclosed and bank-owned when we found it, knee high in thistles and clover, we know very little about this house’s past owners. Intriguing…
Read MoreNot Lost In Translation
Latin samba drums thunder from my computer speakers, and we dance, jumping around the living room. My five year old Daniel leaps joyfully beside me, tiny shoulders bouncing rhythmically, legs stomping the beat. We grab hands, shimmy to the beat, and swirl. Jetlag whirls off, this third day back from our missions trip, and it’s…
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