- The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise. -Alden Nowlan, poet, novelist, and playwright (1933-1983)
-
-
Recent Posts
Archives
- July 2017
- March 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
Meta
Author Archives: Michelle O'Neil
Ilonka loves.
Spoiler alert re: Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things. Skip the second paragraph. There is also profanity in this post. Be advised. Moving is no joke. Even when you land somewhere as beautiful as Florida, it is monumental. It … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, Uncategorized
18 Comments
Speeding Ticket
Driving in the residential neighborhood I live in, my eyes focus on the intersection coming up at the end of the street. Suddenly, there is a cop standing on the side of the road, with his hand up, telling me … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, spirituality, Uncategorized
10 Comments
Patience vs. Presence
On my morning commute, I was listening to a talk given by Eckhart Tolle. In it, he spoke of the concepts of patience and presence. He said if you are practicing patience, you are not being present. You are white … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, spirituality, Uncategorized
9 Comments
The Secret to a Long Life
My grandmother used to say she’d earned every wrinkle. Coming across this video I am reminded of her. Watching it feels like a meditation, and a celebration of every wrinkle, every age spot, every memory stored in the body, every … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, Uncategorized
4 Comments
Learn to Love the Questions
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to learn to love the questions themselves.” —Ranier Maria Rilke
Posted in appreciation, Love., Uncategorized
7 Comments
Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens
I always find it. Always, always. No matter where we live there are places, where nature is honored and preserved. Today I “took the day off” and went to Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens. It was lovely. About 10 steps onto the … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, spirituality, Uncategorized
9 Comments
Carmax Love.
HT and I had a wonderful experience this week buying a car at Carmax. We were left alone to browse a huge lot of cars, and then we came inside and used a computer to narrow down our search. We … Continue reading
Posted in special needs parenting, Uncategorized
10 Comments
What irritating thing are you putting up with?
Every day, when I unload the dishwasher, the tops of these cups are full of water. And the water tends to spill out onto the other dry dishes. And it is irritating. Not a biggie when you think about the … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, Uncategorized
6 Comments
Swimming at Sunset
Not every night, but often enough, after dinner, we head to the beach. Some days the waves are big, and Seth is happy. He lives for riding the big ones. Some days the waves are gentle and Riley is happy. … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, Parenting, Uncategorized
10 Comments
Figure Eight
Despite my tongue in cheek piece in The Imperfect Parent a few years back, I’d never cursed in front of my children for the first ten years of parenting, and even now it is a rare occurence. With Riley’s low … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, Asperger's, spirituality, Uncategorized
8 Comments
You’re doing just fine…
Borderline panic has been my baseline as of late. I barely know where I am. I am lost all the time, literally. I have not had to be in rush hour traffic on a major interstate in over a dozen … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, spirituality, Uncategorized
6 Comments
Florida
We are in Florida. Putting our house on the market, keeping it spotless for months, selling it, and moving has kicked our butts. I feel like I’ve aged ten years in the last six months. I am feeling very off … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, Uncategorized
14 Comments
Sorting and Sifting and Tossing and Boxing
The past couple of months have been some of the most stressful we’ve ever experienced. We are now in the final stretch, and soon we will be in our new home (renting), in a new state. We sold the house … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, Uncategorized
12 Comments
4100 Pages
We just finished the Harry Potter series. We started five years ago and have tackled one every summer, and some during the winters in between. I have read each of those 4100 pages out loud to my kids. The first … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, Cleveland, Parenting, Uncategorized
10 Comments
# 1 tip for photographing rental units, get out of the shot.
Nice garage, but I don’t want to rent the place if that guy is going to be hanging around. We are going to be renting soon, and I am looking at apartments and rental homes through a realtor and also … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, Uncategorized
7 Comments
They’re My Home
We are losing our entire life savings in this move. Not that we had true “life savings.” Our life savings was our equity in our home, and there is no longer any equity. The market has dropped so profoundly since … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, Love., Uncategorized
9 Comments
Take Your Head Out of the Sand
When Riley was three, I was attending a weekly meeting to discuss A Course in Miracles. I’d found the book a couple of years prior, and dabbled. I felt better every time I picked it up and read a little. … Continue reading
Posted in autism, bio-med, special needs parenting, spirituality, Uncategorized
5 Comments
Witness
Last night was the 8th grade graduation at Riley’s school. Riley is in 7th grade, but she really wanted to go. It was her birthday yesterday…13! And she wanted nothing more than to spend her evening seeing her 8th grade … Continue reading
Angelo Zuccolo
If you read Daughter of the Drunk at the Bar, you know there was a teacher who changed my life. He was the theater director at the community college I started out at. One of the reasons I decided to … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, Love.
9 Comments
Diving
This is my grandmother, in 1918. On the back of the photo it says her swan dive was 99.9% perfect. She was 16 at the time. She would go on to marry. Live in NYC for a while. Move back … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, Love., spirituality, Uncategorized
15 Comments