The Decision to Embrace
Leon is in his high chair, giggling. Then — a crash. Bacon and potatoes everywhere. He laughs; I snap. Suddenly a full-time pandemic father, grappling with the identity loss of leaving my job, I feel anger flare white-hot. I yell, slam my hand down. Leon’s face crumples, lip trembling, eyes wet. He looks afraid. Just like that, the anger drains into shame. “I’m sorry,” I say, but he turns away. My wife takes over. That moment, I changed. Now a parent of two, I no longer see the challenges of parenthood as burdens, but as the opportunity to be a father. — Alexander Lau
Something Only a Best Friend Could Say
When a best friend texts you that she’s had a lousy week because: 1. Her 8-year-old cat has been diagnosed with cancer and given weeks to live and 2. She’s having a terrible flare-up of her alpha-gal syndrome, along with pictures showing one eye swollen shut, hives collecting and a new EpiPen at the ready, you text back: “I’ve seen you look worse. Remember? I knew you at 13.” Then you jump in the car and head over, the same way you used to pedal to her house in St. Louis on any minute’s notice, over 40 years ago. — Rachel Weinhaus Yarkoni
Willow’s Will
Everyone said I was crazy for moving. I had never been to North Carolina, didn’t know anyone in the state, let alone in Charlotte. Why not teach in Boston or New York, where I had been raised and gone to college? But I had inexplicable confidence in my decision; in my gut, I knew Charlotte, N.C., was where I needed to be. Only years later, after Willow told me she had been praying for her soul mate to come along, did it make sense; Willow had willed me there. — Stephanie Pett
The True Love Story
In a recent conversation with my youngest of three adult children, we talked about the pain and grief of her father’s death in 2024 and her ongoing trials navigating a thorny four-year relationship. Emma looked at me with her dreamy, beautiful eyes and said, “Maybe the true love affair now is just us,” meaning her siblings and me. I then realized we were all going to be OK.— Susie Polden
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