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I’m Sierra. I live in the Boston area with my family.

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Playing With Fire

by Sierra on August 30, 2010 · View Comments

in humor

So I’m hanging out in the woods with my kids, my girlfriend Molly and her daughter Natalie.

The other day I’m chilling out on the porch while the kids play in the woods next to the house. Natalie comes up to me with a leaf stuck on the end of the stick.

“Can you light this on fire for me?”

“Sure,” I say cheerfully. I hold my hand out and pantomime striking a match, making whooshy flame sounds as I touch the end of the leaf.

Natalie looks crushed.

“No,” she says. “I meant for real. Light it on fire for real.”

“What do you think would happen if I did that?”

She looks thoughtful.

“It would be a candle?” she asks.

“I think it would burn up that leaf very fast, and then the stick would catch fire and it might burn you, and you would drop it and all these pine needles and dry leaves on the ground would catch fire and it would make a huge fire that would burn the whole house down.”

Natalie thinks about this for a moment, and then flashes her best puppy-dog eyes.

“Can I please have one chance?”

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Gratitude Project: The Silence

by Sierra on August 25, 2010 · View Comments

in Uncategorized

I haven’t updated this blog since BlogHer. That’s the longest hiatus I’ve taken from writing here since I started about 16 months ago.

It’s not that BlogHer put me off blogging; far from it. The conference was incredibly inspiring. I made great connections, had a lot of fun, and left feeling more inspired than ever as a writer and a blogger.

But after that intensity of four days in New York City, I stopped by my home in Boston long enough to swap out the contents of my suitcase and visit with a  few friends, then took off again for Maine. I’ve been sitting by a lake outside Bangor for about 10 days now, soaking up the sunshine and silence.

There’s been so much moving and changing for me this summer: I closed my preschool, became a full-time freelance writer, traveled the world. I’ve been living out of a suitcase since the middle of June. My coven suspended it’s regular meetings after almost five years. My husband and I spent some intense weeks figuring out what our marriage means to us, and reshaping the container of our life together.

Taking a few weeks of silence up here in Maine feels like giving myself time to change and grow, to catch up with the new life I’ve made around myself.

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This Haircut Deserves Its Own Theme Music

August 4, 2010

Just in time for BlogHer, I have an exciting new haircut. This is what happens when I walk into the salon and tell my stylist I’m going to a business conference for the weekend and need to look professional. I love this woman. If you live anywhere near me and are not getting your hair [...]

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Some Imaginary Friends are Stinky

August 3, 2010

Staggering to the shower this morning, Serena stopped me in the hall outside the bathroom door. “Kayleigh and Jesi are in there, Mama,” she said. “Who are Kayleigh and Jesi?” “Kayleigh is my friend and Jesi is Rio’s friend.” Rio, from the bedroom, joins the conversation. “You can go in there if you want, Mama, [...]

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Gratitude Project: Distraction

August 3, 2010

Today I’m grateful for the distractions. For the three-year-old using my cleavage as a mountain range for her miniature princess dolls to climb. For the contractor running her power tools downstairs as she finishes my housemate’s beautiful new bathroom. For you, dear Internet, with your amazing powers of oooh! look! a shiny thing! I’m grateful [...]

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The Indigo Girls Rock My Baby’s World

August 2, 2010

We hit the ground running: we went to an Indigo Girls concert last night, about 15 hours after getting home from Argentina. Both girls slept through it. It was adorable, but I may tease Rio for 20 years for sleeping through the show we flew home a few days early for her to go to. [...]

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The Gratitude Project 2010

August 1, 2010

Today marks the beginning of the harvest season, and the first day of the Gratitude Project. Every year, my friends and I celebrate the Gratitude Project from August 1 until the Fall Equinox, by taking a moment each day to offer gratitude for something in our lives. You can do this in a personal journal, [...]

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Then Everything Changed, and Nothing Seemed Different

July 31, 2010

We’re home. The trip back was uneventful on the outside and hugely transformative on the inside. I miss our family in Argentina already, so much it hurts to think about. I’m incredibly grateful to them for having us there for such a long visit, and for holding us in so much love. I really feel [...]

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Baby’s First Tarot Reading

July 27, 2010

Serena got into my Beautiful Tarot app on my iPhone yesterday and figured out how to pull the cards. I love Tarot. I love this Tarot app. I use it just about daily. My only wish is that future version include a Thoth tarot. I’m never sure I think it “works”, since there are no [...]

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Best Misadventure Ever

July 23, 2010

We spent yesterday traipsing around downtown Buenos Aires, having the best misadventure of our trip. Plan A: Martin takes Ian and some of the older cousins to an art museum downtown, while I stay home with the girls. Except it was a beautiful day, and the kids were going stir crazy. So… Plan B: We [...]

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