this is not a rough draft.

A new article of mine is up on Ungrind today, The Butterfly Effect. Here's an excerpt.

My eyes strain to open as I push through to complete the butterfly stroke to the other end of the pool. However, there's too much churn in the water created by my young arms, as well as from the wave that keeps overwhelming me. I finally stop, emerge heaving, and, while treading water, I exclaim to my teacher in my 10-year-old awe, "That is hard!"

Almost 20 years later, my eyes struggle to open again, and although I'm not underwater, it certainly feels like it. Her tiny newborn, raspy cry has begun yet again. My husband stirs in his sleep next to me, as his fatherly subconscious has sensed her need, too. My mind directs my body when it yells "Get up!", but my body does not listen. It is tired and weak. I remember previous -- namely, childless -- sleepless nights and races run, and confirm once again, that nothing compares to this new kind of "hard."

Click here to read more....