The At-home Mother's Life: It Was A

We Can't Live Other People's Lives For Them. Even If We Love Them.

At One Point, She'd Wanted To Hurl The Whole Breakfast At The Wall. And Then She'd Remember Why It Was That Men Had Temper Tantrums And Women Didn't: Cleanup.

He Is A Man, And He Is Afraid. This Is Not A Good Combination.

Time Goes Too Quickly. This Is The Advice That My Mother Should Have Given Me From Her Hospital Bed. Instead Of Vague, Unknowable Quips Like "be Careful What You Wish For," She Should Have Told Me Time Slides Away On A Hillside Of Loose Shale And Takes Everything In Its Path - Dreams, Opportunities, Hopes. And Youth. It Takes That Fastest Of All.

...this Fear Was Unbearable. It Unwrapped Who She Was, As Neatly As He'd Unwound Her Bandage, Leaving Too Much Pain And Ugliness Exposed. Nerve Endings; He'd Said They Were The Problem [causing Phantom Pain In The Amputated Limb]." Things That Cut Off, That Ended Abruptly Or Died--like Parents And Marriages--kept Hurting Forever.