“Social change is not for the faint of heart.” These words, uttered by my coach during a recent session, have been ringing in my ears over the last few weeks. For advocates of social justice and equity, this work carries such great meaning, and also often feels like an endless tsunami crashing over our heads. […]
Solidaridad
We have a paper tree in our kitchen with leaves that each spell out a value. Rosie picks a value each week she wants to practice. This morning, we talked about why I was upset and how it’s more important than ever that we stay true to our values. She grabbed my hand and drew […]
Joanie’s Birthday
Today is my mom’s birthday and I always have a moment at some point in the day where it hits me full on. It’s like that little memory nugget lies dormant and then bursts forth into my brain when I least expect it and my heart doubles its pace for a moment or two as […]
Crawling Backwards
My eight-month old is facing the biggest challenge of her young life thus far. She wants desperately to crawl so she can independently explore the world around her. She gets up on all fours, rocks back and forth with gusto. She has mastered the art of scooting backward, and I sometimes turn to find her […]
18 years
The first 18 years of my life were filled with curiosity, imagination, and melodrama. Images run through my mind of my childhood and teen years with golden summer afternoons reading with my mom, delicious savory and sweet smells wafting from the kitchen where she made culinary magic happen daily; pre-dawn school mornings where I sat […]
Anniversaries: Love and Loss
May is a weird month. Both my parents died in May. But they also got married in May. I have many bittersweet moments during this month. Today marks five years since my dad’s death. These days somehow creep up on me every year. Often I forget until mid way through the day. But I find […]
Ode to a middle school teacher
It’s Black History Month and I’m on maternity leave, thus I’m watching a lot of movies and shows on racial equality. Today as I watched a documentary on Nelson Mandela, I had a flash of memory from Ms. Zuk’s 7th grade social studies class. The best teachers are those who are quirky, tough, and brilliant. […]
Happy New Year…now stop procrastinating!
In celebration of my blog being a year old, I seem to have completely forgotten to write any posts for the last month. I started this blog with the intention of capturing stories of my family and my observations about life, culture and identity. I think I’ve successfully filled this site with random ramblings and […]
Mañana Morukian’s Thanksgiving Feast
I guess it is appropriate that I’m writing this post almost a week after the actual holiday, since it’s a testament to my procrastinating DNA. a few years ago I went home for Thanksgiving and my dad was all excited to cook a big turkey dinner for my sister and me. He spent all day […]