A Life in Letters — Jamie Hughes

This week, I had a conversation with my eldest son about the importance of saying “I’m sorry,” and making amends when you harm someone or have done something you shouldn’t have. He had made a mistake, spoke words in…

I walked outside a couple days ago and something amazing happened. The heat didn’t slap me in the face. The humidity didn’t sit on my chest like some sort of weird, invisible lead weight. (And let me tell you,…

I’ve been working on my health this last year or so, trying everything from a vegetarian diet to visiting an acupuncturist to help with muscle tension and headaches. All of it has been just wonderful. But the…

Christina Applegate, star of classic ’90s films like “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” and TV shows like “Married with Children,” announced last week that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 49. She didn’t share…

This week, my sons returned to school. Both are now in middle school, and let me tell you, this freaks me out deeply as a mother. When we adopted them, the younger boy was only beginning kindergarten, and today,…

On July 10, I did something I never thought I’d do: I got a tattoo! I’ve always been fascinated by body art, and any time I see someone with ink I admire, I always ask a ton of questions…

For the last year and a half, my husband and I had been following the high-fat, low-carb ketogenic diet with some success. I lost 25 pounds, and my spouse (as is often the way with men) lost double…

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but most people don’t like a problem without a solution. If something isn’t working correctly, they’d rather fix, alter, or throw it out and start all over than live with “wrongness.” Now, that’s…

If you have multiple sclerosis, no matter how long you’ve lived with it, you likely know it can be unpredictable. It can hit in weird ways you’re not expecting, even after years of learning how to deal with it.

One of my favorite moments in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” involves a stolen fountain pen. If you’ve not read — or better yet, seen — the play, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a story about…

Spring is here, a time we’d normally be out and about getting some sun and recharging our souls after a long winter. I certainly look forward to working in the yard, hiking, having outdoor picnics, and taking…

In her poem “In Blackwater Woods,” Mary Oliver concludes with 10 breathtaking lines: “To live in this world/ you must be able/ to do three things:/ to love what is mortal;/ to hold it/ against your bones knowing/…

Next week, I will be celebrating my second “quarantine birthday,” which is both amazing and sad. I honestly had no idea we’d still be dealing with COVID-19 for more than a year, and what a strange and perplexing time…

The daffodils are in full bloom. There are leaves on my Japanese red maple tree again. Seeds are going into the garden. Yes, the cruel season known as winter is coming to an end. The world is waking…

For a week, I’ve spent my afternoons painting our enclosed garden. When we built it last spring, the wood was new and lovely, but rain and sun have taken a toll on everything, leaving it dingy and dull. And…

Last night, as I was grumpily prowling through a pile of overpriced red and white striped hats looking for one that would fit my fifth grader, I asked myself, Why exactly am I doing this again? I already knew…

I’ve recently been sucked into watching “Blown Away” on Netflix. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s a reality TV show in which 10 master glass artists compete in 10 challenges to win a $60,000…

I know quite a few of you are dealing with copious amounts of snow right now, but there is not a speck of white stuff on the ground where I live in Atlanta. And for that, I am grateful.

As hard as it is to believe, we’re now nearly a year into this pandemic. Thankfully, two vaccines are currently working their way through the system and into people’s arms in the U.S., and before 2021 is out,…