A mini-memoir & reflection on identity, race, culture, and geography — Where am I from? Am I from Derita where I’ve celebrated family joys and healed from life’s big mistakes? Am I from Florida because I was born there and made my first friends? Am I from England because a distant relative once boarded a ship from its shores? …

White Anti-Racism Requires Discomfort — I’ve written quite a bit over the years about race, but during this time of great momentum in the wake of the most recent round of Black deaths — Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks — I have struggled to put pen to paper. I’m a pragmatist…

Practical Tips from a Work-From-Home Mom I have worked from home for about six years now, beginning in the summer between my daughter’s first and second grade years. …

Understanding the symptoms and implications of a diabetes diagnosis — March 19. It was a Tuesday. I can’t decide if this date will be emblazoned in my memory or if it will blur into the background of time. I can’t decide if I should mark it, commemorate it, celebrate the day she began to get better, or if doing so…

Reconciling the complicated tendrils of my grandfather’s identity — My grandfather’s 92nd birthday was dissonant. It felt routine but had, also, a nagging urgency. If it had been a song, the bass line would have a subtle, resonant pulse, like something ancient tugging you into its rhythm. But its melody mundane. Mundane in a comforting sort of way —…

Sincere Advice, Not Sarcasm — Freedom belongs to each of us. It seems like it ought to be self-evident, but black Americans are Americans, so an attack on Black America is an attack on America. A racially motivated act of domestic terrorism is an act of terrorism that undercuts our collective civil rights. Because civil…