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Game Time for Rookies
Sports have an undeniable element of risk, physically and emotionally. Unlike other forms of entertainment which are carefully choreographed and rehearsed so they are performed with perfect consistency each time, sports are unpredictable. The energy of the unknown is powerful and beautiful … as long as you’re willing to embrace the chance that your team might lose. That tension provides a rush of adrenaline with every tip or face-off or kick-off. It’s not for everyone, but it’s definitely for me.
Like Mother, Like Daughter
One of my favorite photos shows my toddler son sitting on my desk, gripping a pen in his chubby hand, scribbling in one of my notebooks with a look of utter concentration. He grew up with a penchant for telling stories, and although his chosen media are not the same as mine, I love that he feels comfortable sharing his creativity with the world.
I imagine that’s how my friend Lisa feels about her daughter, Fiona. They both threw caution to the wind and tried something new recently. And then they both wrote with vulnerability and charm about what they did. The situations are totally different, but I think you’ll agree that jumping off a cliff might actually be the easier of the two adventures.
Hosting Myself Out of a Party
What if you hosted a party and nobody came? Or worse, only one person came, so you had to put on a brave face for hours until the event was over and you could have a good, long cry?
It would be damn tempting to never have a party again. Or at least not a Soulard Mardi Gras parade pre-party.
But at some point during the long year between one Lent and the next, it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, there was another perspective on why people who had partied with me in the past didn’t return.
Nature v Nurture x Two
This father was prepared for his role in nurturing twin “mini-beasts” when his daughters made their appearance on April Fool’s Day 2024. What he wasn’t prepared for was the realization that they were by nature already distinct from each other. It led him to an insight that shook up everything he had believed before: “Our greatest work as humans is to reveal that vitality, that exceptionalism in ourselves and to inspire the same in others.”
Whale Watching and Whispering
“I had the thought: I wonder if anyone heard me? I dove down again and listened. Someone had. A voice, faint, plaintive yet serene, reached through the water. From maybe a hundred yards away, or a hundred miles—no way to know—but its reverberance was stirring. I went up for air, dove down and tried to imitate what I’d heard, waited, and heard a response—or was it an inquiry? A pretty dull conversation for the whale, no doubt, as I just tried to repeat what I heard, but we sustained this back-and-forth for the length of my mostly underwater, sounding swim back.”
Reporting from the Squirrel Cooking World Championship
This story from Eater about the World Champion Squirrel Cook Off is my favorite kind of writing: quirky, fun, but ultimately very respectful of the unique people and traditions that make our world so wonderfully diverse.
‘Tis the Season for Fireflies and Glow Worms
An Australian journalist details his search for the first fireflies of the season in a New South Wales park in 2023. His guide is a bioluminescence chaser who also points out glow worms during their excursion.
5 Paths to New Outdoor Adventures
My first time rappelling happened in France. I was with a longtime friend and her cousin, who only spoke French. He suggested something that I vaguely understood to be an outdoor activity. My friend agreed with gusto for both of us. And that’s how I found myself strapped to a rope and descending off an abandoned railroad bridge to practice. Then it was off to the real adventure on the cliffs of Ardeche.