It’s that time of summer when abundance and rot start to meet, and I feel it deeply every morning that I open my eyes in August. I have been absent from this writing since July, but notes in my phone would indicate that I have been thinking on transitions and…

Last week was all wildfire smoke and drought here in the Land of Pleasant Living (Maryland, for the uninitiated). Everyone with AC stayed inside while a stiff northern breeze sent massive clouds of toxic particulates swirling in and around the buildings and open windows and lungs of those less fortunate. …

If you’re the life of every party, the loudest voice in every room, and your friends know your guffaw before they see your face — then congratulations, you might be an extrovert. …

I love my “job.” It’s in quotes not because I don’t get paid for it (I do) and not because it isn’t work (it is) but because for as long as I can remember I thought I would be a writer. And technically, mostly by accident and circumstance, and also…

It doesn’t smell like spring, but it’s 70° and I am sitting on my balcony with an evening glass of red wine, listening to children play in the alley. It’s days like this, even with the bare trees and the chill still lingering, that I enjoy the city most. I…

In my work as a freelance writer, I have been very inceptionist and written about ChatGPT, the latest AI that some are worried might replace writers like myself. Don’t fire your writers just yet. Here’s ChatGPT’s essay about me: “Suzannah Kolbeck is a writer based in Baltimore, Maryland who has…

First, sweet loves, an announcement. No social media for me for January. No TikTok. No Instagram. I need to re-evaluate my relationship to the socials. To open up a little space in my life that isn’t filled by 60-second clips of dolphins saying hello to squirrels. I need to connect…

I am 51, a woman past child-bearing years still waiting out my copper IUD. I was a teacher. I am a mother. I am a widow. I am a writer and an artist and a baker. After the pandemic my life has started to shrink just as it clears of…

As is usual, apparently, August has steamrolled right through and smothered me in a warm, wet washclothy embrace. Now we are into September, and I am awash in the feelings and complicated thoughts that have arrived on the full moon in Pisces and Mercury’s retrograde phase. Last month I read…