Crone: Now in my 50’s, I embrace this term.

My ex-husband called me this once. I was probably in my late 30’s. He said it to be mean. He knew I was struggling with getting older — a bit of an almost 40 mid-life crisis. And I was offended. Seriously offended. Also really hurt. He frequently made comments about […]

Without a Net: Middle Class and Homeless (with Kids) in America

From Publisher’s Weekly: “You’d think it’d take a while to go from “given-every-opportunity, spoiled-in-every-way… middle-class housewife… to homeless single mother,” but Kennedy did it in less than a year. Just some “bad judgment calls and wrong decisions,” and a smart young former Senate page and promising college student found herself, […]

The Marginal World by Rachel Carson

With Intro By Michelle Kennedy I have spent much of my life near the ocean. As I’ve gotten older, and I have traveled so much more, I’ve gotten to see lots of different versions of the ocean. I grew up visiting the Atlantic Ocean in Ocean City, Maryland. My parents […]

The Algonquin Hotel – pictures and the intro from the Unmotivated episode in print!

Check out today’s episode here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unmotivated-leaning-into-menopause-and-the-midlife-crisis/id1749381468?i=1000658787789 Hi! I’m Michelle Kennedy and this is real quick. A short cast featuring an essay…well, almost every day. I did not record an episode Monday or Tuesday because I was traveling. My husband’s birthday was last week and we got to go down to […]

The Involuntary Atheist

Trying to find God in my great-grandmother’s apartment in downtown Baltimore. My great-grandmother was named Esther and her tiny apartment was up an elevator and down a hall that smelled like beef soup. It had a very school lunch smell about it – not that I ever bought school lunch. […]

I am tired of feeling fat.

I am brutal to myself. I shame myself constantly for not being successful enough, patient enough, thin enough. I am tired of shaming myself. So much so that I’ve adopted a new mantra. Eat when I’m hungry. Stretch. Move. Work hard. Go outside. Read. Clean. Do the hard things, but […]

Mothers who sell

Previously published at: https://www.salon.com/2002/10/01/sales1/ “Hello?” A tentative voice answers the phone. “Good morning, Ma’am,” I say. “This is Michelle from M— and I’m calling to find out why you decided to give up your executive credit card.” “Well, uh,” the voice stammers, “you charged me late fees when I was […]

5 Lessons I Learned from Living in My Car with My Kids

Previously published in Elephant Journal (2014) The street light over my car is keeping me awake. I toss and turn, trying to comfortably wrap myself around the gear shift in the front seat of my car while the kids sleep peacefully in the back of the station wagon. I sit […]

It’s the little things…

This morning I cried while buttering my bagel. And while yes, I believe butter on a bagel is that beautiful, that’s not why I cried. I cried because I felt lucky to have the bagel. I felt, believe it or not, proud to have this bagel — and the five […]