In honor of Mother’s Day, here is a pdf of Chatterbox, an essay that appeared last year in Shambhala Sun magazine (January 2012). 
I no longer have the photo of my mom in the quotation mark dress that sets this essay in motion, so hearty thanks to my brother Joe for his extensive transcontinental efforts in hunting around for other possible photos and to Tara Hardy for so thoughtfully envisioning the dress in her illustrations. And many thanks to Andrea Miller for making the piece possible, and to Liza Matthews for her patience while we searched for photos.
