I’m happy to report that I’m fully recovered from the flu. And I felt better in time to celebrate Mother’s Day with my mom last weekend. I felt the mix of emotions that I always feel on Mother’s Day: appreciation of my mom, admiration of my friends who are moms, sympathy for anyone who chooses not to observe that day because it evokes difficult personal history, and empathy with all people greet the day—and other family-oriented holidays—with some sadness and longing. I posted…

I went to urgent care this morning and tested positive for influenza, so at the moment I can’t write more than a couple sentences, let alone a whole Weekend Reading post. Between Covid 3 months ago, a bad cold 3 weeks ago, and now the flu, I have more confirmation of what I already know, which is that I’m run down. I might have picked up any of these bugs anyway, but I’ve been feeling strung out without the viruses. Have been assuring…

Only a few hours ago, a name popped up in my inbox that I hadn’t seen it years. It was a note from my Orgo II professor from a decade ago (yikes!) at Georgetown. The subject line was “recipe with (meatless) success.” As it turns out, my professor’s wife had found a chili recipe of mine (this one or this one—I’ll have to ask him) via The Washington Post. She’d served it to loved ones, and according to my professor, everyone really liked it….

Years ago, when I was living with an ex, he and I hosted a friend of his for a few days. That friend went for a walk in the park near what was then our place. On this walk, the friend found a wooden figurine of the deity Ganesha sitting on the ground near a bench. He brought it back to the apartment and offered it to us as a gesture of thanks to us for hosting him. It seemed like a fortunate…

It means a lot to me that, during my spell of intermittent weekend reading posting and sporadic recipe sharing this winter and spring, this community has given me the space to pop in and out of blogging as I’m able. A few of you have even emailed to say that you find it nice when I post just to say that I can’t post. We’re all so hard on ourselves. If my being too busy or overwhelmed to write much creates just a…

I’ve been trying to be structured with my work days, so that my job will bleed into nights and weekends less often than it does. Even so, I took a personal detour midday on Thursday, so that my mom and I could visit the Morgan Library. The Morgan is a museum and research library that was once the personal collection of Pierpont Morgan. It’s home to Medieval manuscripts, printed books, and a number of Old Master paintings. There’s currently an exhibition there of…

I took a yoga class a few months ago, and I couldn’t help but notice the remarkable practice of a yogi on the other side of the room. He was taking every single advanced posture in the book, flowing between them with apparent ease—though I knew how hard he must have been working. He was on a completely different wavelength of intensity than the rest of us. I’m embarrassed to admit to having judgment in a yoga class, of all places. But I…