I leaned in and turned the TV up louder. I was planning on turning off the CBS morning show as soon as my parents had left but I got sucked in when the host teased the next segment: “After the break,” she said, “find out what one skincare product is the only one proven to […]
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There was only one rule at English Camp, and it was regularly enforced: No French words allowed. The penalty for an infraction was to deduct points from your cabin’s team, a consequence painful enough that all of us tried our best to stay within the confines of the English language. This was a sacrifice we were […]
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I’m not a get-in-the-water type of person. I’d rather walk along the shoreline, getting my feet wet instead of swimming out into the open. Better yet, let me sit on a beach chair on the dampened sand with a novel in my hand and a fizzy water by my side. But when we headed out […]
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Every time we roll into town after nearly 40 hours in the car, I exhale in relief. It means we have survived another road trip from California to Michigan so that we can spend the summer months on the family farm, surrounded by grandparents, cousins, barn cats, pond frogs, fields, and woods. When we drive […]
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The scene in the Barbie movie that plucked at my heartstrings and that I can’t stop thinking about is a blip of dialog on a park bench. Barbie has just been cut down by a teenage girl, and—feeling hurt and sad—she sits next to an old woman. The old woman is wearing a dark green […]
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The house was quiet. I was sitting on the couch, wrapped up in my favorite blanket, with a book on my lap and a scented candle flickering by the window. I took a sip of my tea, and thought: this is a sacred moment. But was it? Because on the heels of that thought came […]
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One day a few months ago, I had blocked out a two-hour chunk of time in which to write. My kids were at school and my husband was at work and the house was quiet and interruption-free. I sat at my writing desk with my notebook and favorite pen and waited for the words to […]
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Out of Place – April’s Story When Sarah and I first discussed my guest post for her “Out of Place” series back in April, I was excited to share my story because I basically have felt out of place most of my life. I got married relatively young, I live in a home with four […]
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One Sunday not too long ago, our family packed up our canopy tent and our beach chairs and headed out to the park on the bay. Loaded down with our picnic and our fishing gear, we set up near the water while our two boys zoomed around on their scooters. After lunch, my six year […]
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Last week, I joined the boys in the pond – a welcome relief from the heat and humidity. We splashed around, they climbed me like a jungle gym, they begged me to throw them into the water. When I got tired, I climbed onto the floating dock. I untied the yellow rope from the post […]
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Sarah K. Butterfield 