Archives
On seeking joy
Posted on January 10, 2022
Well, we’re a week and a half into the new year and 2020 has dragged its sorry behind all the way through 2021 and into 2022. The pandemic turns three this year; a toddler that’s found its feet and is off and running. Like so many toddlers who’ve recently discovered the power of locomotion, this […]
Inheritance of fear
Posted on May 1, 2019 21 Comments
Climbing rocks and a parent’s anxiety for YeahWrite #420’s Microprose Challenge.
Not Drowning, Waving
Posted on October 25, 2017 4 Comments
“It’s going swimmingly,” she said while catching the lifejacket and wrangling two teens.
On 17th birthdays and glimpses of the adult
Posted on August 17, 2016 6 Comments
So, here I am very early on Godzilla’s 17th birthday, resting on the corner of Testosterone Lane and Horsepower Road. Having two teen boys in the house means a lot of muscle flexing, boundary pushing, and territory marking. They wake with teasing exchanges that rapidly morph into the rat-tat-tat of suddenly flared tempers. And before long, like […]
No More Streamers
Posted on September 1, 2015 6 Comments
No more streamers littering the floor. No more shining cachous skittering across counters. The fairies have packed up their bread and departed. Saggy, flaccid balloons leer lecherously at disemboweled party poppers, as football and pirate cupcake wrappers tango in mismatched pairs.
Who’s The Boss: On being a mother in the house when your mother is visiting
Posted on July 13, 2015 14 Comments
It’s summer holidays, and my mother recently flew from Australia to spend two months with us. It’s disconcerting to be the adult child in my house when my parent comes to stay.
In Which I Deal with Death Doubled
Posted on April 5, 2015 16 Comments
This week my essay on grief was published on Modern Loss, an online journal containing resources and personal accounts about death, loss, and grief. It’s a piece I’m proud of, and I’m delighted it was published, but it’s also a piece that causes such turmoil in me.
Secrets and Lies
Posted on March 29, 2015
‘And today’s sermon shall be on the value of chastity.’ The bitter thought swirls and sticks as I sit, eyes downcast, a penitent look fixed firmly on my face, listening to Mum berate me for missing my curfew, yet again. Why doesn’t she get it? Her rules were fine when I was a kid, but […]
Life in the Quiet Moments
Posted on February 25, 2015 9 Comments
What do you do when your 15 year old son comes to you with a problem you can’t solve? What do I do? I do mental backflips. As a mother, I’m always quietly (or sometimes not so quietly) delighted when my teenaged sons decide to confide their deepest thoughts, troubles, and the issues they’re currently wrestling […]
Letter to My Sons
Posted on December 16, 2014 21 Comments
My Darling Sons, Today, in the aftermath of a violent, unhinged man holding people hostage in the Lindt chocolate cafe in Sydney, killing two, causing physical injuries to more, and unseen psychological damage to so many more, I am heartsore. In the aftermath of a young, unarmed African American man being shot to death, ostensibly […]
Asha Rajan 