Happiness. It's relative.
Posted on June 10, 2015 by Jan Wilberg
This morning I wanted to remember Kahlil Gibran’s writing about children because I have been feeling lately like a life raft where all the people who were hanging on have swum away but they don’t want me to pull up anchor yet because they… Continue Reading “Finding the Words, the Beautiful Words”
Category: Mostly True Family StoriesTags: adult children, Being a parent, Kahlil Gibran, mother, motherhood, parenthood, The Prophet
Posted on April 29, 2015 by Jan Wilberg
Do I think Toya Graham is a hero? No. I think she’s a mom who went completely off her nut when she caught her son throwing rocks at the police in Baltimore. And I get that. I really do. She saw him in a… Continue Reading “I Get Toya Graham”
Posted on March 18, 2015 by Jan Wilberg
Dear young mom, You look at me and see a grandmother who had her chance. You figure what I could tell you about being a mother would begin and end with a rotary phone. Nothing I know would apply now in this whole different… Continue Reading “Dear Young Mom”
Posted on January 15, 2015 by Jan Wilberg
The disproportionality of the motherhood experience just smacks me in the face sometimes. We all start pretty much equal, right? We’re young women in our twenties, we get connected to someone, maybe get married, feel suddenly completely impelled to have children, impelled as if… Continue Reading “Let’s Run This Lap Together”
Posted on July 30, 2014 by Jan Wilberg
Captain Nan’s was one of a dozen beautiful white boats bobbing in their slips on a dock lit by tiny white Christmas lights. Her sign said she did tours of Islamorada and that’s what I wanted. After years of staying in the same tiny… Continue Reading “Lift the Anchor”
Category: Mostly True Family StoriesTags: being a mother, burn-out, motherhood, parenthood stress
Posted on May 4, 2014 by Jan Wilberg
It’s always other people’s children who get shot. Last week, a man was shot by a Milwaukee police officer. Although not all the facts are known, everyone seems ready to lay the shooting at the feet of mental illness. The thinking trajectory is that… Continue Reading “It Could Happen or Not”
Posted on April 30, 2014 by Jan Wilberg
So this morning I knocked on the shower curtain so my husband would peek out and tell me if I looked okay. Heading to a day of big meetings, I wanted a good, “Wow, you look really sharp!” from him. I got this: “You… Continue Reading “My Little Book”
Category: Mostly True Family StoriesTags: being a mother, CreateSpace, mother, Mother Mining, motherhood
Posted on September 16, 2013 by Jan Wilberg
What is the big deal about the ‘still face’? Simple. It makes people crazy. Anyone who adopts internationally is warned about the effects of the lack of human interaction on children raised in institutions. Oh, children are fed and clothed but they aren’t talked… Continue Reading “The Poison of the ‘Still Face’”
Category: Mostly True Family StoriesTags: 'still face' experiment, child abuse, motherhood, Parenting, still face
Posted on August 21, 2013 by Jan Wilberg
I like to say I knew her when. I knew her when her bangs were cut straight across with sewing scissors because the idea of spending real money on a haircut for a kid seemed outlandish to me. I knew her when she would… Continue Reading “The Mother My Daughter Is”
Category: Mostly True Family StoriesTags: daughter, mother, motherhood
Posted on July 7, 2013 by Jan Wilberg
A few weeks ago, this mama duck was swimming solo. Her life on Little Lake Harbor on Lake Superior was sweet, uncomplicated. She paddled, ate, sat in the sun, floated with her friends, watched boats come and go and took care of herself. Then… Continue Reading “Ducks”
Category: Mostly True Family StoriesTags: 100 essays, ducks, motherhood
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