My twin passions for travel and stories are no longer about escape. Instead, they have taught me a lot about finding something to appreciate every day, wherever I am. Every place I travel is somebody else’s home, so it stands to reason that my home should have its own...
I think about death a lot. That’s not to say I’m obsessed or depressed. It’s just one of the two weirdest things I’ve ever been aware of: the inevitability of my demise, of the demise of all of us. The other weirdest thing: that I’m here in the first place, that we’re...
When life gets so busy, whether with necessary tasks or the pursuit of our dreams, that it feels as if we have no time, I believe it’s even more critical to carve out moments to connect with nature. I’m sometimes tempted to ignore the call of the outdoors and keep...
I was riding my bike past my neighborhood middle school when I saw a banner near the entry proclaiming, “Meets Expectations!” and now I can’t stop wondering what they’re so excited about. I find it sad that our country’s well-intentioned push for accountability and...
A couple of weeks ago I finished the first draft of my novel, and paused to take that single breath of victory before diving back into battle. At first, I’m nervous to use the word battle, because I fear someone will tell me to relax or not to struggle. I myself used...
Why do so many people transform into stupid, selfish, dangerous meanies when they step into their cars? In the past two days, I’ve listened to people lay heavily on the horn because: 1) I was waiting at a stop sign so a car that was almost upon our intersection and...
I’m excited to go to a write-a-thon today at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop because I find it energizing now and then to write creatively when I’m surrounded by other people doing the same. However, there is one thing that I have become used to doing when I write...
A friend shared this video the other day, which I found both astonishingly beautiful and terrifying. It’s the largest glacier calving event ever filmed, in which a mass of ice the size of Manhattan breaks away from Greenland to collapse into the ocean. Perhaps the...
I was listening to a lot of silence during a discussion in my high school writing workshop today, when I realized two things: 1) I’m usually comfortable with silence, and when I’m the only instructor in a room I’ll usually let it go, but 2) when I’m a visiting...
During a conversation at a recent party, a friend said there was a word she was tired of hearing lately: “deserve.” When someone asked whether it was because she was a teacher and her kids used that word, she said that wasn’t it. She said that most of her students are...
Cara Lopez Lee is the author of They Only Eat Their Husbands. She’s a winner of The Moth StorySLAM and performs in many storytelling shows, including Unheard L.A., and Strong Words. Her writing appears in such publications as Los Angeles Times, Manifest-Station, and Writing for Peace. She’s a traveler, swing dancer, and baker of pies. Cara and her husband live in the beach-town of Ventura, California, where they enjoy tending their Certified Wildlife Habitat full of birds.
