Category Archives: parenting

Monday Musings: Forlorn On The Fourth Of July

Posted on July 1, 2024 by dbjackson

We have a fun July 4th celebration in our little town. It’s a university town, and a somewhat affluent one at that, especially when compared with the surrounding communities. And so we attract a lot of visitors. There are games … Continue reading →

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Monday Musings: Very Special Tattoos

Posted on June 24, 2024 by dbjackson

While our older daughter, Alex, was sick with cancer, she continued to live her life with passion and exuberance, in defiance of the disease, the treatments, the fear, the injustice of a cruel and arbitrary illness. She traveled, she spent … Continue reading →

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Monday Musings: Contemplating Marriage At Thirty-Three Years

Posted on May 27, 2024 by dbjackson

Thirty-three years ago, on Memorial Day Weekend in 1991, Nancy and I were married. We were living in California at the time, doing our graduate work at Stanford, which is where we met. We had a wonderful weekend, which included … Continue reading →

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Monday Blues: The Hardest Birthday

Posted on May 6, 2024 by dbjackson

Yes, another post about our daughter and our loss. A part of me shies from this, wonders if I have written about her too much. “Write something upbeat,” I tell myself. “Something funny, something — anything — that isn’t about … Continue reading →

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Monday Musings: How Am I? Well, It’s Complicated…

Posted on March 18, 2024 by dbjackson

Back in November, just a few weeks after the death of our older daughter, I wrote of the difficulty I regularly encountered answering the question, “How are you doing?” At the time, my emotional state was a moving target. I … Continue reading →

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Monday Musings: My Mother and My Daughter

Posted on February 5, 2024 by dbjackson

My mother would be 102 years old today, which speaks to a) how very old I am, and b) how uncommonly old she was when she and my father had me. I was born at the end of the Baby … Continue reading →

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Monday Musings: The Tyranny of Clocks and Calendars

Posted on January 29, 2024 by dbjackson

Many years ago — more than a decade, which boggles my mind just a little — Nancy, Erin, and I went down to Monteverde, Costa Rica, to visit Alex, who was taking the first semester of her junior year in … Continue reading →

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Monday Musings: The Power of Dates, the Power of Memory

Posted on January 22, 2024 by dbjackson

Today is the 22nd of January. It’s been exactly three months since our older daughter passed away. I didn’t used to care about the 22nd of any month (my apologies to those with a birthday on one 22nd or another … Continue reading →

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Monday Musings: The Emotional Challenge of Writing

Posted on January 8, 2024 by dbjackson

Whenever I work with writers who are at the outsets of their careers — whether I’m editing their work for freelance or for an anthology, or teaching them in a workshop, or just talking shop on a convention panel — … Continue reading →

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Happy New Year and a Musings Post Celebrating Grief (Yep!)

Posted on January 3, 2024 by dbjackson

For years now, I have written New Year’s posts, often more than one per holiday. In December, I have often taken stock of the year that’s ending, evaluating my accomplishments, examining my disappointments, trying to make sense of an entire … Continue reading →

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