sonyaewan

QUIET, please

In 2023, my husband and I traveled to a teeny town in Maine for a self-guided mental health and wellness retreat. It’s become an annual tradition (or necessity, depending on the year). We wrapped up last year’s road trip retreat at a B-n-B on a horse farm in Wisconsin and there, I made an equineContinue reading “QUIET, please”

commUNity

So, I went to a rap concert. Living in the Twin Cities now, where all the big performers stop on tour, I’ve wondered what it would be like to attend a big-name concert. Even better, what would it be like to see a major rap artist? Not Kendrick Lamar big, but maybe 2 Chainz. IContinue reading “commUNity”

#rushLess

“Inhale to mountain pose; exhale deeply to forward fold. You’ve been here before,” my yoga instructor told the class. I’ve been here a thousand times, I thought. What of it? I generally rush to arrive at anything with a fixed start time. Not just for the journey there, but for the whole getting-ready process: rushContinue reading “#rushLess”

still DREAMing

I almost unfollowed writer Morgan Jerkins on Instagram. I logged in yesterday and there she was, resplendent and joyous in her photos and a post about how she had been worried that only industry folks cared about her new book—her fourth in seven years. She also wrote that because it took her four years toContinue reading “still DREAMing”

HealIng

On March 5 of 2020, I sat in my therapist’s office thanking him for all the work we’d done together. I told him something like, “I think I have the tools I’ll need to be okay from here on.” And then I moved cross-country to Minneapolis from Albuquerque during Covid-19 lockdown. I wasn’t okay, ofContinue reading “HealIng”

EAgeR

[2-min read] My upstairs neighbor is deep into a rollicking grand piano practice session just above my desk space. (Ah, yes—it’s Spring Break.) Thank goodness they’re talented. Nevertheless, they flub a few notes now and then and I’m struggling to get any work done that requires concentration, so, here we are. Instead, I’m contemplating theContinue reading “EAgeR”

i NEED a CAT

[3-min read] I think my dad might be a gnat. It’s sitting on the upper right corner of my laptop screen as I type this, flicking its gnat wings and scrubbing together its rear gnat legs. It’s also keeping me company. (I don’t have a cat.) A couple times, I’ve tried to smash it andContinue reading “i NEED a CAT”

EARTH day

[3-min read] Was it middle school when I first learned that the earth wouldn’t exist after the death of the sun? Back then—in the early 1980s—and for several years after hearing that apocalyptic fact, I assumed human beings could still be earth inhabitants on the very day the sun died. I had imagined what thatContinue reading “EARTH day”

DUality

[3.5-min read] I’ve been sifting through a folder of iconic high school knickknacks. I’m pretty sure my mom secretly abandoned it guilt-free in my garage on one of the times she passed through my city en route to living in a new town. It takes me back to a conversation I had about Simple Minds.Continue reading “DUality”

embRace

[3-min read] On a cool day in late May, three months after Putin’s military had invaded Ukraine, I met Luda Anastazievsky. A Ukrainian American, Luda had arrived at a fundraising event for refugees as a guest speaker. She wore a puffy yellow jacket with the hood up and cinched tight around her face. Despite theContinue reading “embRace”