Need Some #ExtraLove? See You Sunday

Well, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to make people safer or more decent, or to dry tears or comfort strangers or give life back to the dead. The only thing I know how to do, really, is this. The next edition of #ExtraLove will be Sunday, Oct. 8 in Griffith Park. We’ll have 300 blank …

Vanessa McGradyNeed Some #ExtraLove? See You Sunday

#ExtraLove

Vanessa McGrady#ExtraLove

Sweetness at the intersection of want & need

Christmas has been difficult for me since my dad died in December, 2003, and it hasn’t helped that soon after, I moved to Southern California where I have exactly zero family. So a few years ago I finally stopped wallowing in my aloneness and started inviting people over for Christmas Eve as a way to make a new holiday with …

Vanessa McGradySweetness at the intersection of want & need
5

An Imperfect Daughter

I would hope my mother, who announces regularly these days that she’s not getting any younger, feels completely and absolutely adored by her family as she rides out her twilight years (she’ll outlive all of us, I am certain). That her dreams for me and my brother have surpassed any expectations. That even though none of it went as she’d planned, she feels …

Vanessa McGradyAn Imperfect Daughter
2

Two kinds of fear

I don’t consider myself a generally fearful or anxious person, but I’m just going to list what lurks in the fear section of my brain, because the only way to reveal the monster in the closet is to turn on the light. THINGS I AM AFRAID OF, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER: 1. Grace not having me. 2. Me not having Grace. 3. Having …

Vanessa McGradyTwo kinds of fear

Hey 47

Today I may have ruptured heretofore unknown internal organs from laughing so much over the last 24 hours, and quite possibly my heart, which is bursting from all the love I’ve been getting from nearly everyone I know, everywhere. Today I started a novel that kicked down the door of my inner life and finally spilled into words made of letters. Today I bought …

Vanessa McGradyHey 47

The Girl Who Got Mad at Flowers

A: Love is a pink hula hoop! B: Love is a blue umbrella! A gives B pink hula hoop B gives A blue umbrella A: Why did you give me this blue umbrella? B: Why did you give me this pink hula hoop? Both sulk. Valentine’s Day is loaded. Coupled, uncoupled, madly swiping dating profiles–so many of us carry the …

Vanessa McGradyThe Girl Who Got Mad at Flowers