Colorado Central Magazine recently published my humorous essay “Out of the Wild.” Out of the Wild by Abby Quillen I grew up in Central Colorado, and most weekends my family piled into a canary-yellow 1975 Chevy pickup and pitched down rutted-out, rock-strewn roads to hike, explore, or cross-country ski at places with names like Mosquito…
My husband and I don’t collect many things, but our house is full of books. I love to read fiction, but I tend to collect more practical books, ones that I’ll look at hundreds of times – almanacs, reference books, plant-identification guides, cookbooks, and how-to guides. My husband’s into the decidedly unpractical – first edition…
I’ve been stirring things up on Shareable.net for the last few days talking about Alfie Kohn’s book No Contest: The Case Against Competition and some of his ideas for raising more cooperative, less competitive kids. My post begins: In 2008, an interviewer admitted to Alfie Kohn that she considers herself a competitive person. “As long…
Hush little baby, don’t say a word Mama’s going to buy you a mockingbird. If that mockingbird don’t sing, Mama’s going to buy you a diamond ring. If that diamond ring turns to brass, Mama’s going to buy you a looking glass…. I’ve always loved the lullaby Hush Little Baby because my mom sang it…
The other day as I was tidying the house for some impending guests, which involved removing a basketball from the bathroom, relocating a caravan of toy trucks from beneath the dining room table, and emptying ping pong balls from most of the shoes in the entryway, I found myself reflecting on some of the things…
I took swim and piano lessons and belonged to quite a few clubs at school, but when I think about my childhood, it’s the slowness I remember – infinitely long summer days, conversations with my parents that felt like they’d go on forever, leisurely afternoons of reading, wondering, day-dreaming and playing. Some of my friends…