Quote of the Week

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”

Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum

Nocturne painting of a tree and lighted windows

To My Parents on Their 50th Anniversary

Snapshot of the author’s parents, 2013

Today is my parents’ 50th anniversary.  On January 27, 1968, in a Russian Orthodox church in central Pennsylvania, an 18-year-old and a 22-year-old made a commitment to one another.  They upheld their vows to the very end.

It’s uncommon today for couples to marry so young and to stay together.  My parents came of age in a different time and culture, a world where starter marriages weren’t yet a thing and the median age of a U.S. bride was 20.8 (by 2015, the number had risen to 27.1).  Still, it’s pretty amazing that a teenage bride and a groom in his early twenties chose each other and stuck together for all those years. Read more

Happy Birthday, Alexigraph!

Photo of flowers in Santorini with the text “We’re 1!”

After just a few days of planning, I started Alexigraph on January 8, 2017.  It took me nearly a full day to set up the site, but then I made my first post and I was off and running.  It’s hard to believe I’ve been at this for a full year!  I love sharing my thoughts and experiences with you, and I truly appreciate you taking the time to read them, respond, and share.

In celebration of one year of blogging, I’m rounding up some of my personal favorite posts from the past year (in no particular order).  I know, it’s a long list — I had trouble narrowing it down! Read more