Reclaiming Our Oasis: A Room, a Chair, and a Step Toward Myself   The Oasis That Became Everything When we first bought our house, I called our large bedroom above the garage ‘our oasis.’ It was a quiet refuge, a place where my husband and I could breathe, retreat, and simply be together, away from the demands of life that waited just beyond the door. Over the years, life filled it with so much more, laughter, mess, care, and love, shaping it in ways I could not yet fully und

How caregiving reshapes time, relationships, and the self   Caregiving often enters our lives at moments of transition, an illness, a diagnosis, a sudden change in abilities, or the aging of a loved one. These moments are usually framed as temporary disruptions, something to adapt to and eventually move through. What I have come to understand, through my own experience and through observing others, is that caregiving rarely resolves that cleanly. What begins as a transition o

Exploring how continuity, scaffolding, and collaborative caregiving shape a neurodivergent child’s development   Opening Reflection When a child is forced through repeated transitions, who absorbs the impact so the child doesn’t fracture? I am writing this on the eve of another transition. Tomorrow, she boards a plane to visit her mother for two weeks. She has taken this flight many times before, yet it still carries fear. Transitions do not become neutral through repetition;

When Santa and the Grinch Visit: Choosing Magic and Wonder   There is a quiet, tender transition that happens somewhere around middle childhood, the moment when believing in Santa begins to soften, blur, and eventually give way to knowing. It is a transition not only for children, but for parents too. And like so many transitions, it doesn’t happen all at once. My son is ten now. Last year, I think he figured it out, but only after Christmas had passed. Not in a dramatic, con