“And people used to ask me a lot when I was younger, “Why do you write about common things? Normal, like regular little things?” And I said, “Well, what do you have in your life? I mean, I’m not living like in Star Trek. I have common things in my life. What else do I have?” But I don’t think that the things are themselves common. I think it’s a miracle that anything works.
I’ve been thinking about Flint, Michigan a lot these days. I think about the miracle of plumbing a lot and all the mysteries we don’t see under the soil. The pipes, the wires, the wireless connections now.
I mean, just thinking about everything that’s going on, kind of like when you’re a child fascinated by all the stuff that’s going on inside your body, and you didn’t have to tell it to do that. Like, I used to think my stomach is — I’m digesting right now. I didn’t have to tell it to do that. It just did it. That’s incredible. Or the heart beating, or the blood rolling through the veins.
And you think, wow all this stuff goes on. That’s not commonplace to me. That’s miraculous. It’s amazing. And so writing is a way that we’re continually — continuously restored to that. And reading other people’s work, being restored to that. How could you ever feel too old or too dull in a world like that?”
– Naomi Shihab Nye
Welcome! I am a lawyer turned freelance writer, essayist, and editor. On staff at Literary Mama and the co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal, The Sunlight Press, my essays and reported work have appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily, Saveur, Civil Eats, Brain, Child, ESPN and elsewhere. I am currently at work on a memoir on grief and culture and how it provides perspective on life’s ordinary graces. I invite you to appreciate the ordinary with me. I hope my daily practice of seeing the magic in the mundane helps you celebrate and find more of these moments in your life too.