growing up Archives - Soft In Hard Places

Eulogy To My Mother

LisaPullenKent — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 01:23:16 +0000

When she shall die,Take her and cut her out in little stars,And she will make the face of heaven so fineThat all the world will be in love with nightAnd pay no worship to the garish sun. William Shakespeare Patricia … Continue reading →

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In Her Image

LisaPullenKent — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 02:00:43 +0000

Sometimes I feel like a motherless childSometimes I feel like a motherless childSometimes I feel like a motherless childA long way from home African-American Spiritual I’m going to lose my mother. It’s an inevitability I never used to think about. … Continue reading →

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Confessions Of A Reluctant Stage Mom

LisaPullenKent — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 20:18:57 +0000

“I’d like to go to brunch,” I say, loading my athletic shoes into my gym bag. A suitcase sits open on the floor. My husband carefully lays out his dry cleaning on the bed for yet another business trip. I … Continue reading →

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To Believe or Not to Believe

LisaPullenKent — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 03:26:37 +0000

“Mom, is Santa real?” My youngest shouts this over the top of Katy Perry’s “Roar” playing on the radio as I’m dodging traffic on Providence Road, trying to get to gymnastics. I shouldn’t be surprised that questions of this magnitude … Continue reading →

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Enough

LisaPullenKent — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 20:05:51 +0000

I actually did it. For once I followed through on a threat. I’ve battled my children for years — no, decades — over the condition of their bedrooms. When the eldest two were teens, I all but conceded the fight. … Continue reading →

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Becoming

LisaPullenKent — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 22:52:21 +0000

I love teenagers. I do. Everything about them: the awkward, the self-conscious, even the angry bits. I’m especially intrigued by the way they shed their childhood like a skin and emerge a newer, older version of themselves. I even kind … Continue reading →

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Through Grammy’s Eyes: A Birth Story

LisaPullenKent — Thu, 29 May 2014 22:13:42 +0000

Every birth has a story, ripe for the telling, though the tale varies with the perspective of the teller. The closest view belongs to the mother; it is her body, after all, that houses the new life, she who evicts … Continue reading →

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The Long Haul

LisaPullenKent — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 15:34:18 +0000

I’m washing up in a restroom at the Oklahoma City airport and for a moment I can’t place my location: hospital? hotel? restaurant? Elegant water faucets and gleaming granite countertops add to my sense of disorientation. I don’t even recognize … Continue reading →

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Just Like That

LisaPullenKent — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 02:40:50 +0000

Aaaaaaand just like that, Christmas is over. The preparation, the anticipation, the actualization; come and gone for another year. My beautiful live tree adorned in sparkling red and gold is dead, morphed into an endearing Dr. Suess caricature; its pliant … Continue reading →

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Square Peg

LisaPullenKent — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 15:34:31 +0000

Sydney tried out for the cheerleading squad. “Let’s get a little bit rowdy, R-O-W-D-Y!” In the cafetorium, I watched her audition as she executed the moves and called out the words just liked we’d practiced. She was a bit timid, … Continue reading →

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