Letter to My Daughter: Yep, This Year Sucks

Letter to My Daughter: Yep, this year sucks, on Pura Vida Sometimes - header

Dear Warrior Princess, 2020 has been a memorable year, in mostly the worst ways. It’s hard enough for adults, but kiddos like you are really getting the short end of the stick. I agree – this year sucks – but I’m here with you, and better days will come. We had a great spring break – a low-tech week of friends, projects, relaxation, and focused fun. But it never ended. You didn’t go back to school, I didn’t go back to “work,” nothing went back to normal. The function of our home office was really tested for the first time […]

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Letter to My Daughter: Keep Kicking Butt

Letter to My Daugher - Keep Kicking Butt - Pura Vida Sometimes

Dear Warrior Princess, You’re another year older – a year full of surprises, fun, love, and sometimes challenges. You are cuddly, caring, and sweet, and also increasingly self-assured and terrifyingly independent. Like your mama, you don’t need validation from anyone else (including me!), and you don’t like being told what to do. Your personal strengths and inclinations won’t guarantee you an easy life, but we were made like this for a reason. They will call you bossy, and when you also have authority, they’ll call you aggressive – it comes with the skirt; but follow your heart, do what you […]

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Letter to My Daughter: Remember Our Love

Letter to My Daughter: Remember Our Love - Pura Vida Sometimes

My dearest Warrior Princess: The last four years of life since you joined us have been transformational, full of wonder and surprises, and they’ve gone by way too quick. Each day that I get you ready for school, pick you up, and get you ready for bed, with many laughs in between, passes with the blink of an eye. Enough blinks have become another year of life. But with each passing year, I think to myself, this was the greatest. Each new phase in your development is the most exciting, and every moment with you is better than the one […]

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Letter to My Daughter: Leave While You’re Young

Leave While Your Young - Pura Vida Sometimes - Teotihuacan

The photos of your new life are breathtaking. You decided to leave with a one-way ticket, to get a change of scenery. Some fresh air in your lungs. It was time. Your family misses you, and although my advice may not be popular with them, I just wanted to tell you…don’t come back. Don’t even consider it. Not yet. You have to leave while you’re young. This is your time. You were born with a great restlessness that many never know and most won’t understand, and they’ll try to lure you back. Being away from everything you’ve known will allow […]

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Letter to my Daughter: Be Patient with Your Old Mom

Sweet Warrior Princess: Not too long ago, I was sitting on the bed with my mom and grandma – your great grandma – talking about how quickly time flies. “I still feel like I’m 16,” I said. “Me too!” said your grandma. “Me too!” said your great grandma. There are two funny things about time flying: 1. In spite of wisdom, experience, and maturity, you stay young inside. 2. Age is a sliding scale. No matter where you are on the continuum, you’ll perceive others’ age differently and you are the constant. When you’re a kid, you can’t wait to […]

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Letter to My Daughter: I Give You the Best of Me

Letter to My Daughter - Best of Me - Pura Vida Sometimes

Sweet Warrior Princess: Today is your day. Okay, all 365 and 1/4 days of the year are yours, to be sure, but this one you get presents and cake. When you were born, three years ago today, I committed to write you a letter within the week…but I was tired and way too cozy with the warmth of you asleep on my chest and it never happened. Every year, the week of your birthday, I have the same intention – but I get busy, and more tired, and somewhere along the way, thoughtfulness and creativity are sacrificed. My letters to […]

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Letter to My Daughter: On Being a Workaholic

Letter on being a workaholic Pura Vida Sometimes

To my beautiful Warrior Princess: One of my greatest fears is that you will look back on your childhood and think that your mom cared more about work than about you. I would understand if my actions gave you that impression, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. I’d like to explain a few things with hopes you will view our life together with love and compassion and make good choices on how you want to live yours. Since I was 17, I’ve only ever not worked during three four-month spurts in my life. The first two were between […]

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