Tag: life
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How Did the Pandemic Change Your Friendships?
This post is an excerpt from my latest story for HelloGiggles, “Is This Normal? I Talk Less to My Friends and I’m Happy” Dear Is This Normal?, It’s no secret that the pandemic has changed our lives. But now, with vaccines available and everything starting to open back up, I’ve spent a long time wondering…
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5 Things to Consider When You Think You Can’t Do It
It’s possible you’re already doing it, whatever your it is. Or that you’ve already done it in some past variation. It’s a matter of continuing to do the hard thing you thought you could never do. Breathing always helps. Find someone who reminds you how to take deep breaths when it feels like you’re sucking…
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Gardening in the Rain
In case you’re wondering, our garden is still growing weeds. I’m learning that this is how it goes (so they say): you pull the weeds, they’re gone; then the weeds grow back, and you’re down in the dirt again.
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I Want to Become the Friend Who Remembers Birthdays
Every month, I hope that I will wake up changed, a new woman, suddenly transformed into the thoughtful person I want to be—the friend who remembers birthdays. It’s sort of like how every day, my cat climbs on the back of my reclining zero gravity chair on my porch. And every day, she hopes that…
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Lost Socks on Laundry Day
My husband (who affectionately calls me the Laundry Fairy) says his socks are missing. I remember hearing tales of lost socks from others who were living in a different chapter and carried far heavier loads than I did as a single person. Where could it have possibly gone? I always wondered. (How did your life…
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What I See Outside My Window
A man in a red shirt drives a blue tractor through our neighboring green field. Our black-and-white cat sleeps under my chair, while the gray-spotted cat’s busy hunting a cardinal. An orange popsicle to cut through the thick July heat.
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Our Secret Garden
Our garden is growing weeds. We don’t know what to expect in these garden beds because we weren’t the ones who planted them. We inherited them when we bought the house in the dead of winter, bare trees and frosted beds. So I’ve been waiting and watching, checking each morning to see what pops up,…
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Rain, rain, go away
Our cats have full roaming access to the whole house, and yet, all they want is a deep dive into the kitchen sink. We spray the water bottle, stomp our feet, clap our hands, put on stern voices, NO! GET! DOWN! BAD!, we’ve tried it all. J even became the blanket monster, draping the fuzzy…
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You Should Know, I Baked Bread
Dear Friend, I know I joked that I wouldn’t do it, wouldn’t join the herds baking bread. But, can you blame me? It was Easter Sunday, after all, and I needed to see something rise.
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Baking Bread (Or Not)
My husband comes home from the grocery store and tells me that everyone’s baking bread these days, why is everyone baking bread? All his friends are swapping pictures of baking bread and these friends are males in their early 30s and they are all home, quarantined, baking bread. I tell him that yes, I’ve seen…
Ashley Fenker 