“I’ve come to believe that a long hike has a biological cycle. Like almost everything—life, relationships, civilizations, songs, stories, stars—it is born in explosive uncertainty.” At Appalachia Journal, Ben Montgomery writes on divorce, loss, and taking his kids on a 244-mile walk to make sense of it all.

Thoughts from Heather Kirn Lanier, who is the mother of Fiona, a child with Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome: “They are treated, in other words, like banks, where the teacher deposits information and then, at a later date, requests that the information be returned back.”

“After a while, a boy not unkindly asks my daughter, ‘Why is your Mummy in a wheelchair?’ My heart squeezed.” Lorna at Gin & Lemonade writes about talking to her daughter, Isla, about disability.  

“We’re all a little weird thanks to our mothers. I’m carrying that tradition on with my own children.” Mary Laura Philpott, who blogged previously at I Miss You When I Blink, shares an excerpt from her new essay collection at Longreads.

“It turns out the nightly parenting haiku is not only Minimum Viable Creativity, but also an opportunity to journal milestones every night without having to figure out what to say.” This post from 2017 at Unlikely Words compiles a year of haiku from a parent.

“When I was pregnant with my fourth child, Maely, I just wanted to keep wearing my jeans.” Holly Kjar discusses the product she created for pregnant women, the Maeband, and the growth of her business and online community.

“All I’ve wanted from the beginning is just to put a human face on poverty that is not the one that we think of…” Stephanie Land, who wrote a memoir on working as a maid and being a single mother, first found an audience on her blog.

“Same kid. Different wrapper.” In 2004, the Smartypants family adopted baby Nora. In 2018, they amended Nora’s Certificate of Foreign Birth when Nora transitioned, changing his name Aaron.