“Motherhood makes you stronger even as it makes you weaker. Your new sensitivity is a strength, and you should see it that way.” StrengthMotherhoodSensitivity Book:Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother Source: Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother
“Keeping meticulous score was our favorite girlhood pastime, adjudicating the dispersal of the cereal boxes' plastic treasure, tallying who had more Christmas presents under the tree. When given a piece of cake to split, one sister was handed the knife. The other got to pick her half, quadruple fanatical eyeballs pressing down on the blade, its slow, slow submergence through the buttercream. And then poof. You rolled over and played dead, took yourself right out of the game. Fancy that.” ChildrenKidsDeathLossGriefEqualityMourningFairnessSistersKeeping Score Book:The Irish Goodbye: Micro-Memoirs Source: The Irish Goodbye: Micro-Memoirs
“...Both a baby and a poem masquerade as something we've created, when we know that they arrive from somewhere beyond us, that they are gifts.” PoetryBabyPoemGiftCreate Book:Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother Source: Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother
“When you push your stroller past a group of elderly women, you'll see in the turning gladness of their bodies a glimpse of the children they had been, turning toward the tin music of the ice cream van.” AgeParenthoodBabies Author:Beth Ann Fennelly
“I'm 54, Scott. I'm not interested in holding anything back anymore. I'm not interested in protecting myself or being coy or photoshopping my emotions or my life.” AgingGetting OlderMiddle AgedHolding BackMiddle AgeProtecting OneselfBeing CoyMid Age Author:Beth Ann Fennelly