Sunday. I sit in my comfy bed, afraid that getting up will mean facing the long list of chores I’ve ignored all week—laundry to be done, bathrooms to be cleaned, Halloween decorations waiting to be packed away. But what I really want to do is make a cup of coffee and sit outside, enjoying the morning quietly with the birds and trees as my companions. Almost instantly, I criticize myself for wanting to rest when there’s so much to do and never enough time. I was raised to beli

At the age of 14, my maternal grandmother told me that when I was born, I was so dark compared to my brother—who was a blonde baby—that my Tia, dad’s sister, started a rumor that my mother had an affair with my father’s Ecuadorian friend, Eddy. My grandmother ended this snapshot by saying, “And then I was so relieved when you got freckles and strands of red hair like your dad, because it proved you were his daughter.” Last year, my cousins’ father passed away. While going thr

I sat down this morning to edit my book. My goal is to have it published by the end of the year—and today is October 4th. The truth?...