Category Archives: On Faith, Hope & Love
Trust the process
(http://www NULL.nicholebernier NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-05-at-9 NULL.43 NULL.03-PM NULL.png) I didn’t know if I’d find them alive or dead. The temperature is -5 when I walk down the path behind our house cupping a small tub of meal worms. It had been -16 … Continue reading
When doing good doesn’t feel so great
(http://www NULL.nicholebernier NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Rey-smaller NULL.jpg)(originally posted 10/2017) In the latest litter we fostered there was a clear runt, tiny and watchful, all head and twitchy ears. We should have named her Yoda but the kids dug in on Peanut. She … Continue reading
Paddling Blind
(http://www NULL.nicholebernier NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/kayak2 NULL.jpg) (originally posted 7/2014) Last week my yoga class decided to meet on the water. “We’ll go visit the swans,” Erin said as she directed three of us into kayaks. She climbed into her own — well, … Continue reading
Stepping up
While I was in Washington DC for the March for our Lives, this happened. Our foster cat had her babies. No matter that I’d spent the past week sleeping on an air mattress in her little room. This was her … Continue reading
The Myth of the Perfect Start
(http://www NULL.nicholebernier NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/log-frozen-copy NULL.jpg)The log was 30 feet up in the air, a sort of telephone pole of a balance beam. I was supposed to walk from one end to the other, holding onto nothing. The rest of the group … Continue reading
Blind Date
(http://www NULL.nicholebernier NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/u-haulsplash-truck- NULL.jpg)Earlier this year I wrote this essay for Redbook…My husband and I celebrated our 15th anniversary this week, which got me thinking about the spirit of serendipity and risk-taking that got it all started. * … Continue reading
Scent, Sound, Words and Memory: Reading with their Great-Grandmother
(http://www NULL.nicholebernier NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/grandma2 NULL.jpg)The lobby was empty, decorated in the orderly, outdated way that nursing homes are. Tired but precise, precisely tired. My mother waited in a corner chair. I was late, but she wasn’t disappointed. It had been a … Continue reading
Daring to Care: What fostering animals taught me about parenting
(http://www NULL.nicholebernier NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/raccoon1 NULL.jpg) The kids were clamoring for a new pet. A year earlier we’d said goodbye to our dog, and before that, the cat. In between was an unsuccessful series of hermit crabs. When each one crossed that … Continue reading
Hobbies? What Hobbies?
(http://www NULL.nicholebernier NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/octogenarian NULL.jpg)A friend was talking about her Pinterest boards recently, and how she’d added a new board for “hobbies.” Since Pinterest was her latest hobby, she laughed, it was like a hobby within a hobby. “I don’t even … Continue reading
On Rejection and the Beautiful Blueberry
(http://www NULL.nicholebernier NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/blueberries1 NULL.jpg)I was not in the best of moods the other morning. It was gray and sleeting, and I’m guilty of letting weather affect me. The to-do list seemed overwhelming, and the calendar said there were to be … Continue reading
