Homing Instincts: Early Motherhood on a Midwestern Farm
- ISBN-10
- 110197284X
- ISBN-13
- 9781101972847
- Series
- Homing Instincts
- Category
- Family & Relationships
- Pages
- 278
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2018-04-17
- Publisher
- Vintage
- Author
- Sarah Menkedick
Description
Sarah Menkedick spent her twenties trekking alone across South America, teaching English to recalcitrant teenagers on Reunion Island, picking grapes in France and camping on the Mongolian grasslands; for her, meaning and purpose were to be found on the road, in flight from the ordinary. Yet the biggest and most transformative adventure of her life might be one she never anticipated: at 31, she moves into a tiny 19th-century cabin on her family's Ohio farm, and begins the journey into motherhood. In eight vivid and boldly questioning essays, Menkedick explores the luminous, disorienting time just before and after becoming a mother. As she reacquaints herself with the subtle landscapes of the Midwest, and adjusts to the often surprising physicality of pregnancy, she ruminates on what this new stage of life means for her long-held concepts of self, settling, and creative fulfillment. In “Millie, Mildred, Grandma Menkedick,” she considers the nature of story through the life of her tough German grandmother, who raised two boys as a single mother in the 1950s and then spent her seventies traveling the world with her best friend Marge; in “Motherland,” on a trip back to Oaxaca, Mexico to visit her husband’s family, she finally embraces her Midwestern roots; in “The Milk Cave,” she discovers in breastfeeding a new appreciation for the spiritual and artistic potential of boredom; and in “The Lake,” she revisits her childhood with her father, whose relentless optimism and mystical streak she sees anew once she has a child of her own. A story of a traveler come home to the farm; of becoming a mother in spite of reservations and doubt; and of learning to appreciate the power and beauty of the quotidian, Homing Instincts speaks to the deepest concerns and hopes of a generation.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Consuming Innocence: Popular Culture and Our Children
By Karen Brooks... Sandi 258 Thomas , Susan Gregory 37 , 38 , 119 , 120 tiaras 239 Timberlake , Justin 174 Tolkein , JRR 195 too much positive reinforcement syndrome 235 ...
-
Grief Unseen: Healing Pregnancy Loss Through the Arts
By Laura SeftelEggers, D. (2000) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. New York: Vintage. ... The Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Henry Holt.
-
The Baby Name Wizard, 2019 Revised 4th Edition: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby
By Laura Wattenberg... musician Deacon Frey; comic book vampire Deacon Frost Dean (DEEN) 1961: #84 ... Today Variants: D'Andre, Deondre, D'Ondre, DeAndrae Sisters: Destiny, ...
-
Daddy Look!
By Todd Battle, Darrel Sanders, Reggie WattsBetter yet, how could a parent show one child more love then the other! s? ... involved in their lives to know how to deal with and teach them individually.
-
Making an Impact - Children and Domestic Violence: A Reader
By Marianne Hester, Chris Pearson, Nicola HarwinIn the scheme, staff members were expected to ask about possible violent and abusive behaviour in the relationship of the parents (or equivalent carers).
-
Decoding Love: Why it Takes Twelve Frogs to Find a Prince and Other Revelations from the Science of Attraction
By Andrew S. TreesA great deal of math is involved , and Miller and Todd experimented with a number of scenarios on how to determine mate value .
-
Adolescents and Their Families: An Introduction to Assessment and Intervention
By Terry S Trepper, Mark WordenActing-out adolescents are frequently unable to deal with symbolic ... Similarly, Todd (1985) argues that individual sessions with the teenager is an ...
-
The Read-aloud Handbook
By William S. Pollack, Todd ShusterCaptures boys speaking out about drugs, sex, sports, violence, ambition, school, and other topics.
-
A Return to the Joys of Parenthood: Tots to Teens Training for Family Unity
By Emily S. Owen“ And the younger child gets the worst of the deal until he learns to defend ... instead of reprimanding Todd when she saw him angrily headed toward his ...
-
And Suddenly They're Gone: What Parents Need to Know about the Empty Nest
By Patricia S. Olson“ Todd took a phone to school but he didn't get it hooked up for two or ... on his own terms and keeping his parents out for a time was part of the deal .