There is a particular kind of relief in waking to rain. I don’t mean the dangerous kind that sends us hunting for flashlights and refreshing the weather radar every ten minutes. I mean ordinary rain, the steady, companionable sort that taps at the windows, blurs the edges of the morning, and turns the whole world outside a soft and forgiving gray.
The Gift of a Rainy Day Read More »
When we hear the word accessibility, it’s easy to think about things designed specifically for people with disabilities: ramps, designated parking spaces, Braille signs, wheelchair lifts. What we don’t always notice is how often an accommodation created to give one group better access becomes an ordinary part of life for the rest of us. There’s even a name for this: the curb-cut effect.
You Probably Used an Accessibility Feature Today Read More »
In my back yard, I have a banana plant. Technically, I have more than one, because banana plants don’t really believe in being solitary. They grow in families, sending up new shoots from the same underground structure. Left entirely to themselves, they’ll produce as many as they can. At one point, I think we had ten.
Ten is too many.
What Banana Plants Know About Caregiving Read More »
Last week, our air conditioner died.
This would have been inconvenient anywhere, but in Florida in July, “inconvenient” does not begin to cover it. The house became hot and sticky almost immediately. We closed curtains, shifted between the few rooms with portable cooling, and tried not to generate any unnecessary heat. Even cooking became a strategic decision.
What We Notice When Something Stops Working Read More »
A few weeks ago, I visited a store that recently opened in my area, InchStone Books, and my first impression was exactly what every independent bookstore hopes to inspire: I wanted to stay. The shelves were thoughtfully curated, the gifts were reading-adjacent in the best possible way, and the chairs looked like they’d been chosen by someone who actually planned for people to sit in them. The atmosphere had that particular quality that’s impossible to manufacture — the feeling that someone who loved books had arranged the place, and that whoever showed up would be welcome here.
Third Spaces: A Different Kind of Caregiving Read More »
