Author: erincurlett
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Queer and Beloved
The last few years have taught me so much, and one of those very.important.things. has been coming to terms with the fact that I identify as queer. Something I’ve also realized is that I don’t owe anyone an explanation, or even the simple fact that Bi seems to be the label that fits the best.…
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Radical Acceptance
For most of my life I’ve thought I was broken. Something was off, and not quite right, and somehow I just didn’t meet the expectations of anyone around me. I remember as a toddler, crying to my mom, “I’m trying, Mommy. I’m really trying. I try SO HARD to be good.” Of course she showed…
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Signs
My soul likes to look for signs. Three days ago, under a robin egg sky, our yard burst with birdsong. Through the window I saw —one, two, three, four, five!— red-breasted robins perched in the trees, evenly spaced, like a sentry. The air was cold, but the sun shined brightly. Spring is near, I thought.…
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Neurodivergent
So, guess what? This girl right here? She has ADD. Officially, as of this week, I’ve got a dx and an Rx and FRIENDS, can I tell you — it took me FORTY YEARS to realize that there is a neurological reason my brain works the way it does. This is earth shattering. So many…
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Pink Scrunchie
On my 40th birthday, grinning and in love with life, I slipped in the mud and fell on my ass. Okay, fine; it wasn’t actually my ass; it was my hip and leg and chest — my entire right side caked in mud from the impact of hitting the slimy, muddy hill intent on ruining…
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co-breathing
The one thing they told me at the hospital, more important than “breast is best,” was that I should never, under any circumstances, co-sleep with my child. I was a new mother in a state-of-the-art hospital in the Pacific Northwest, attended by midwives and nurses of the crunchy variety. The veracity with which the nurses…
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Paper airplane
Last night I took Jakey for a walk around our neighborhood. The sun was setting, the breeze was cool, and he had a paper airplane he wanted to test. We checked the direction of the wind. We noted the plane’s patterns of flight. We laughed. Over and over again he repeated, “Mama! Watch this! Watch…
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Measuring Up
The inchworm is what I remember most about the day I learned I was the tallest in my kindergarten class. Green, thick, and smiling, it froze mid-crawl on the paper ruler my teacher had taped to the wall. He may have worn a ball cap, he may have been crawling toward an apple, I’m not…
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Remember This
The bunk beds arrive this week. I whisper this in the darkness as I haul myself out of bed, once again, at the sound of my three-year-old’s cry. We’re past the days of Mama, hold you! but we are still in the realm of Please change my diaper and sing me a song. The light…
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Stay Awake
“The scenic route is the only route. Life is short. Stay awake for it.” Yesterday I was surrounded by aunts and uncles and cousins, all tied together by blood and history and promises. Looking in their eyes I could see my grandpa, my grandma, and the kids my dad and his siblings once were. It…
Erin Curlett 