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Survival Sisters
Byline: Jessica Hill I stripped off my clothing, exposing my bare skin to the bitter night, and climbed on top of Rosita, stomach-to-stomach, skin-on-skin. Nicole wrapped her tiny, naked self around...
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Against The Odds
Byline: Lisa Leshaw It never occurred to me that Sariyah, my very best friend on the entire planet was black. Her skin was surely darker than mine at least until mid-August of each year when I became...
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Beg, Borrow, Steal
Byline: Stacy Appel Right around the time I began to notice that my friend Heidi was a thief, the plants in my house began to wilt, and two pots of daisies on my deck withered and died. At first I...
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Izzy's Friends
Byline: Marcia Walker It's become a ritual. At the end of the school day my daughter, Izzy, shrugs off her winter jacket, plops her backpack on the floor and moseys on over to the breakfast counter...
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Time Share
Byline: Stephanie Hunt State Road A1A is straight and narrow—a long coastal Florida highway that ribbons down the Atlantic, dotted by biker bars, fried seafood joints, nail salons, RV campgrounds and...
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Taking Root
Byline: Angela La Voie At best count, I have moved 27 times in my 43 years. For most of my life, I focused on how all that moving made me resilient, resourceful and adept at organization. I can walk...
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When The Heart Is Not Quite A Home
Byline: Wilson Diehl My future husband didn’t understand why I was stalling. Within months of our meeting, my cat, my upright mixer, and the better part of my shoe collection lived with him, but I...
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Summer Stage
Byline: Stephanie Hunt When her mother died, my friend Becca used the $7,500 she inherited to turn an abandoned schoolhouse in rural Ecuador into Escuela Anne Stevens to carry on her mother’s ministry...
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Hot Wax
Byline: Amy Vansant Many things seem like a good idea until they aren’t: hiring a birthday party clown; parachute pants; Justin Bieber.But this sort of disappointment doesn’t have to happen to you and...
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Meltdown
Byline: Stacy Appel Camp Robin Hood wasn’t at all what I expected. For one thing, no one had happened to mention the heat. In the glossy brochure photos, the campers looked uniformly cool and...
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Any Thing But Blue
Byline: Jen Reeder I was lying on a beach, being “buried” in the sand by some of my nieces and nephews. They were all under the age of 10, still too young to do anything naughty, like give me sand...
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Straw Into Gold
Byline: Stacy Appel July in my town is a month of noisy industry. With no rain on the horizon for months to come, roofers arrive in the early cool of morning, awakening everyone at the same moment...
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Red Hot & Holy
Byline: Sera Beak My first official duty as sister-of-the-bride was to fire the priest. This wasn’t exactly easy for a former- Catholic-good-girl-people-pleaser with freckles. That said, telling a...
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50 Shades Of Anti-Gray
Byline: Stephanie Hunt I wish I could remember my first time. The moment I crossed over from being an innocent virgin brunette to being a little less virgin and a little more brunette. I wish I could...
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Birds Of A Feather
Byline: Nikki Hardin One day during a heat wave in February, my friend Nancy and I were arguing about whether to go to the gym or go for a walk. I voted for the walk, because I’d rather have my leg...
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A Tale of Two Nurseries
Byline: Andrea Gallagher The room at the top of the stairs has served many purposes, but I’m not sure it was ever meant to be a nursery. It started out as a little boy’s room, but when the little boy...
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Room For Thought
Byline: Stacy Appel Five minutes after I’d walked through the front door, I knew I wanted the house. Despite the peculiar, slightly abrasive landlord, despite the enormous sum I’d have to come up with...
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The First Big Break
Byline: Stacy Appel They say winning isn’t everything, but standing here before you tonight, gazing out into a sea of rapt friends, admirers, co-workers, a couple of neighbors (hey, Wilson family!)...
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On The Page, On Stage
Byline: Lauren Hopkins Karcz I found my identity in a college library one summer morning. I had just turned seventeen, and was sweating it out at an honors program in south Georgia, making generous...
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Tiny Tattoos
Byline: Debra Larson Our first baby was six days old when my husband Andy said, “I have something to tell you.” We were standing at the foot of our bed after I’d just set our sleeping newborn in his...
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Taking The Plunge
Byline: Emily Rogan Jump, Emily, just jump!” My brother Josh and my friends were screaming down below.I stood on a wooden platform, 15 feet above a pond of 38-degree water. I’d already had a taste of...
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Good Bones
Byline: Dawn Downey “Get her some flowers for Mother’s Day. Purple iris.” Wendy called out a final instruction from her front porch. She was a psychic. She read Tarot cards, threw the I Ching and...
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The Rocker
Byline: Carolyn Dow My father and I were on a rare visit to see his Aunt Jesse, who still lived in his childhood home on the eastern border of New York. It was 1944, and I was six years old. Just as...
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Windfalls
Byline: Stacy Appel A few nights ago I was lucky enough to attend a concert of Persian classical music. Unlike concert-goers at a folk or jazz performance, this audience sat entirely still in the...
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If By Chance
Byline: Stephanie Hunt On a late September evening of my junior year, I was walking back from my shift taking phone orders at Pizza Devil, the campus pizza delivery service, and ran into my friend...
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Grace Notes
Byline: Stacy Appel Few of my Thanksgivings as a grown woman have been spent with immediate family. My parents are long gone and my brother lives in a different part of the country, so over the years...
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Out Of The Box
Byline: Lorrie Goldin My daughter Ally says I’m a hoarder. She may have a point. As I search the cupboards for a spanakopita recipe gone missing, hundreds of loose clippings cascade to the...
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Porridge
Byline: Chels Knorr Feeding time starts at 5pm. Or should I say, the porridge better be ready by then, or else 44 crying babies will create mayhem, though they likely will anyway.This is not my first...
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Dr. Mary Says
Byline: Nikki Hardin Dr. Mary says I have issues about you that I need to work on,” my daughter Jennifer announces after we’ve been talking on the phone for a few minutes. Screw Dr. Mary and the couch...
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