It’s been hard to find much optimism lately. I prefer writing about the micro, not the macro, so I’m not going to enumerate all the reasons here as if you don’t already know that the big picture is not looking awesome right now. The problem for me is, when I try to focus in on … Continue reading Tulips
Author: ashleycundiff
Ballet Class, Revisited
I recently started taking ballet class again for the first time in eighteen years. By “taking ballet class” I mean I have taken the first thirty minutes of a ballet class, which consists of about half of the barre portion. This means that I had at least one hand on a steel support the entire … Continue reading Ballet Class, Revisited
The Extinction of the Snowperson
I have this fear that, by the time my children have children, the snowman will be extinct. And by snowman, I mean snowpersons and snow creatures of every type. I am realizing as I write this that there are some gender equality and inclusion issues around the term “snowman,” so just to clear it up, … Continue reading The Extinction of the Snowperson
My Epiphanies (Which Have Absolutely Nothing To Do With Wise Men)
I love the word epiphany. It is such a grand way to express new enlightenment. Also, it sounds like candy; it reminds of the old-fashioned divinity my mom used to make at Christmas, all fluffy and pastel and ethereal. I taste sugar when I say it. I have had in my life a few epiphanies … Continue reading My Epiphanies (Which Have Absolutely Nothing To Do With Wise Men)
January
I hate January. It’s not the winter part I have a problem with. The darkness doesn’t bother me much, nor the spareness of the landscape. I don’t like to be cold, but I have a thermostat and a teakettle and I use them. It’s really not the winter season. It’s just…the month. I mean, does … Continue reading January
Twinning
I am a mother of twins. This is hard to write. Not in the way of the sorts of things that are hard to write because my writing tends towards the cowardly side, but just in the way that it seems somehow, well, not true. Both that I am a mother, and that I have … Continue reading Twinning
Another Fall
A couple of days ago I noticed during my commute that the fall color on the trees was peaking—it won’t get much prettier than it was that day, and soon it will start to decline. Another fall. It snuck up on me. Halloween passed a few days ago, and September and October, the months that … Continue reading Another Fall
Elegy for a Tooth
We have in our family what I consider to be bad luck when it comes to teeth. Of the five of us, four have lost teeth we should in theory still possess either through accident, decay, or a combination of the two. Add that to the baby teeth that my daughter has lost in the … Continue reading Elegy for a Tooth
Dinner
When my daughter was an infant, I would spend her naps watching a show on one of our nondescript and ever-changing digital TV channels, one that I came to think of as “the first cooking show." I don’t know that it really was the first, nor do I remember the name of it, but it … Continue reading Dinner
Magic Pumpkins
First off, I must explain our early winter ritual of throwing our rotting jack-o-lanterns and spent decorative gourds and pumpkins into the wooded area that surrounds our house. The property in front of the house has a downward grade into a ravine, so to toss a pumpkin from the porch down the hill is a … Continue reading Magic Pumpkins
The Domestic Wilds 