Frog Trouble Times

Soon after we arrived on vacation in Hilton Head last Saturday, Harriet and Bea and I went to find a charging station for the Ioniq. There was a free station (but occupied) at a local park, so as I wrote a note to the owner of the car that was currently charging (people will usually text you when they’re done), Harriet busied herself arranging bark, flower petals, leaves, and Spanish moss in a rosemary bush: “It’s a fairy reading nook,” she explained.

This week I turned 50! Years old! I am proud of making it this far and I still have a lot farther to go. I went to dinner with the girls and our besties. I met with my union and wore my new Legalize Teaching t-shirt. I went kayaking and saw bald eagles. I had a scary mammogram appointment that turned out fine. Bea and I went to a dog nosework class with Cat. At the Clapping Hands Farm camp share, I saw many fairy houses, and visited a woodland grocery store made by Harriet and her friends.

In 2024, after the election, family friends took a trip to DC. They wanted to see the museums, archives, and monuments before Trump took over. I thought this was a good idea but couldn’t bear to do it myself—the idea of interacting with a disappearing reality was too painful. I suppose I am not good at goodbyes, even (hopefully) temporary ones. In the meantime I have tried to immerse myself in as many functional spaces of care and government as I can.

River Road after Tropical Storm Chantal, which killed three people in Chatham Co. Hi there, Frog Troublers. We are coming to you this morning with a simple request we hope you will please heed. It costs nothing and takes 10 minutes, tops! Are you: -A scientist or researcher? -Someone who wants to be a scientist or researcher? -Someone whose life has been helped by scientific research? -Someone worried about climate change or trying to recover after natural disasters like Helene or Chantal?

Have you ever hiked Max Patch, the wildflower-strewn bald mountain on the North Carolina/Tennessee border & along the Appalachian Trail? It’s an easy hike, less than a mile loop and not very strenuous! But also gorgeous, amazing, a place to fly kites, enjoy picnics, read books, take photos, and pretend to be Maria Von Trapp.

I think a lot of FTT readers are in the same place I am, the place of remembering our fathers and grandfathers rather than bringing them cards or ties or T-shirts. I miss my dad very much, but I can still hear his voice. Sometimes I’ll ask my writing students to brainstorm some of the daily language they grew up around, especially the sayings, and then we collect them on the board.

Our dear brilliant friend Tift Merritt has a new album, Sugar, coming out this month. Tift, as you may know, is an amazing person. Mom to 10-year-old Jean, Practitioner-In-Residence at Duke University’s Franklin Humanities Institute, writer, songwriter, scholar, organizer, teacher-of-songwriting and artist-who-tours (sometimes). Authentic beauty who makes everything around her more beautiful and authentic.

We’re lucky to belong to a neighborhood pool, which we joined a few years ago. It’s about a twelve minute drive away, technically in Chapel Hill, and is where we see a lot of the country kids who go to Harriet’s school. It’s not fancy but we love it: the snack bar serves Impossible burgers, BLTs, and KitKat cones; there are loungers and umbrellas; and the high dive is finally fixed.

One of the many values my dad instilled in me was respect for other people’s work, especially when it differs from your own. I can remember his annoyance after he recommended an excellent HVAC installer to one of his friends (an artist with three houses), and that friend balked at the price. “It’s not brain surgery!” the guy said. “Okay then, you do it,” my dad said. I don’t know what happened, but I am certain that my dad’s artist friend did not install his own minisplits.

Greetings and Happy Mother’s Day, Frog Troublers! Would you like to hear about the worst thing I’ve done in my 12 1/2 years of being a mom? Of course you do! Other people’s mistakes are interesting, plus finding out what other people consider “really bad” can be illuminating about our own worst things.