Airborne

Seema Lakdawala on Viruses and How They Spread

Studies done with animals in labs don’t totally replicate the way humans get infected, which involves mucus, saliva, and other pathogens. We don’t know the full complexity of that interaction.

Eight Tenets

This morning I tell myself, Everything is possible—the first tenet of qigong, the Chinese practice where you stand or sit and start scooping energy out of the air like it’s invisible ice cream. Reaching out and scooping, pulling back and placing energy on your heart, energy that allows good things to happen in all situations. This makes me feel super ninja and ready to meet the day.

On Wheels

Last summer I took a free one-day course in nearby Philadelphia for adults who wanted to learn to ride a bike. The incident that finally pushed me over the edge was when my eight-year-old niece was riding in circles around me, baffled by my inability to do the same. She asked why I was afraid to do something so easy. And I was afraid: Of falling. Of looking foolish. Of struggling to even get on the seat at a public park and then throwing a tantrum while some teens recorded me on their phones. Mostly I was afraid of finding out how limited I really am.

Between You and Me

When I was eight, I stole my sister’s Barbie. Then her turquoise nail polish. And then her candy-colored journal. I consumed its pages, the wisdom and wonder of a thirteen-year-old’s thoughts: The boys she had crushes on, the boys who had crushes on her. How afraid she was of her developing body, how every morning she woke up with something new to fixate on—a new hair, new bump, new curve. I longed to feel what she was describing. How wonderful it would be to be as beautiful as that. To be something that blossomed.

Moon Boots

Our baby could not yet hold his head up. I lay on my parents’ living room floor next to my son, wondering how I was going to afford and overcome everything by myself, thinking I was too clumsy to take care of something as delicate as a child. And, in having these thoughts, I came undone.

Red Desert

Sometimes I think of my early years of living in the city, that watery phase of life when you don’t plan beyond the next week, or even the next day, and every new connection is imbued with promise.

A Thousand Words

A Thousand Words features photography so rich with narrative that it tells a story all on its own.

The Wall of Death

The Wall of Death is a rare piece of Americana, a vintage live-action show featuring a silo-shaped wooden cylinder thirty feet in diameter. Inside this motordrome, daredevils on motorcycles ride a fourteen-foot wall.

Avium

You don’t know what’s with Marjorie, // but you almost love her as you gird your loins for a cure / worse than the disease. Imagining two years of drugs / in your still-able body that climbs hills and sings, // you can’t stop wondering how you got this thing. Yet / it must be said avium blesses you with a meaning hardly / to be believed. . .

Mad to Live

When my children began to tattoo their skin, / even modest images scared me. / I winced at each new embellishment, / wishing them innocence, not scars.