dalai mama.

ok, you know that professional organizers' rule
about tossing unread magazines older than six months?

well, i don't do that.
i know. i'm a rebel.

not that i've never done it,
but honestly, i typically subscribe to a mag
or pick up an issue at the newsstand
because it interests me & i want to read it.

goodness knows i've got shelves of books
i've yet to get around to reading,
but i'm not going to just toss them.

my life, as i've mentioned, is full.
& i'm trying to spend more time reading
& less time catching up on the series criminal minds,
but for now, i'm not blindly tossing reading material.

so there, napo members.
put that in your coupon wallet &
forget it at home when you go to the grocery store.

[whew. i showed them, eh?]

all of which is to lead up to my new writer crush.

so, i was reading my premier issue of wondertime magazine
[display until may 15, 2006],
& came across an article titled "dalai mama: a busy mother
learns to get her mind off the to-do list & into the here & now of raising kids."

well, we all know i'm all about this sh*t, so of course i read it.
& i loved it.

it was the perfect blend of the daily grind & the spiritual miracle of parenthood.

it was where the poopoo & the woowoo meet.

oh, & it was funny, with a completely relatable voice.
just amazing writing, really.

for example, love this:
all my life I had been waiting for this, this little being.
& yet here he was & already I was missing it somehow,
preoccupied instead with the frantic tedium of our lives.

which mamas among us haven't felt exactly that
at one point [or many]? show of hands?
mm-hm, i thought as much.

so the author is a woman named catherine newman.
which rang a little bell for me. where had i heard her name before?

& i realized she's written several other articles for other publications i love －
like o, the oprah magazine & whole living [formerly known as body + soul] －
articles i had ripped from the binding & saved,
simply because they spoke to me so very strongly.

so, naturally, i googled catherine newman,
my new writer crush [too stalky?],
& discovered she's still writing a dalai mama column
for wondertime.com . . . it's now food-focused [called "dalai mama dishes"],
but still wonderfully written.

& thank my blessed aunt, she has a blog,
named for her children, ben & birdy,
which i now follow [too stalky?].

her birdy just turned eight, just like my little boy.
& her ben is twelve, just like my big girl.
gee, it's like we're separated-at-birth twins.

maybe someday, we'll be reunited.
& all because i saved － & READ － a 5yo periodical.

[ok, too stalky. got it.]


image source: real simple.