Author, Tree Street Kids
By Amanda Cleary Eastep What’s next? It’s a year of transition for my family. High school and college graduations, a wedding, and a potential job change. And, for me, a sense of an impending–I hesitate to use the word–molting. (Ew, I know.) I’m shedding the skin of the first half of my life…kids grown, resume a solid […]
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By Amanda Cleary Eastep Maybe it was your mother. Your wife. Your daughter, sister, grandmother, friend…even a historical figure. But at some point in your life, a woman made a difference in it. A big I-would-not-be-who-I-am-today-without-her kind of difference. Today is the last day of National Women’s History Month. (Nothing like jumping on the lesser-known […]
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By Amanda Cleary Eastep I’m a little afraid to write the words. Be. Courageous. Writing those words in my journal means I can’t tell God it was only a fleeting thought. That I was “writing drunk,” as Hemingway said, and planned to edit sober later. And I can’t blame someone else. No one’s handwriting is that bad. But it’s […]
Read MoreBy Amanda Cleary Eastep You know that perfect fall day. Where the cool lays across your cheeks like a damp cloth, and the setting sun is a bullet of warmth above your right eye. You walk through freshly mown grass, speckled with decimated leaves that fell onto the dregs of summer, too soon to join the […]
Read MoreBy Amanda Cleary Eastep I didn’t plan on writing about actor and comedian Robin Williams’ suicide. Lots of people already have. Lots of people who have more inspiring words to say. And it was some of those words that stuck with me. “I’ve learned that there can be meaning without things making sense.” Photo Credit: […]
Read Moreby Amanda Cleary Eastep This photo was taken right before I met a man with a time machine. In the spirit of that, let me back up. I recently discovered an off-the-beaten hiking trail that winds along the banks of a lovely little stream and detours around a tree that reaches like the fingers of a cupped hand […]
Read MoreToday, just a thank you for all the words, Maya Angelou…
Read Moreby Amanda Cleary Eastep My youngest step-daughter and I knelt under the huge pine tree in her yard in Kentucky. We were building a house for the fairies. Sticks, leaves and rocks formed walls, a door and places to sit and rest your wings. I hadn’t been with her dad that long, and this collaborative […]
Read Moreby Amanda Cleary Eastep I may have to dub this a “glorious weekend.” Between the weather, hours (!) to write, lots of digging in the dirt, and hiking planned for the last day of a four-day weekend…well, just…*heavy sigh of satisfaction.* Last night at church–which we moved outside among the trees–Pastor Chuck asked us to […]
Read MoreIt’s only January 5. And day two of another snow storm in Chicago. Not one to be thwarted from anticipating planting season by a foot of snow, I remembered that I have these two lovely empty tea tins from Trader Joe’s just begging to be filled with dirt. While shopping for storm supplies, i.e. […]
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Amanda Cleary Eastep 