The sage advice my mother gave me

It meant little then, until I became a mother. Then it meant everything.
BY INA AMOR MEJIA

As a young girl, I had a constant daydream about myself as a mother. I feel like I was born with the desire to have children, and my expectations of that looming destiny never waned. I even knew what sort of mother I would be. All of it hinged on an image of myself, babe in arms, with every hair in place, feeling serene and content. This had a lot to do with my mother, Annabelle.

A Birth and A Death

Eight years ago I gave birth to my son, and witnessed something I will never forget.
BY INA AMOR MEJIA

I don't tell this story. It's one of those things that you keep in the deep parts of your mind but never forget. I was at the hospital about to give birth to my son. It was day three and my amniotic fluid was running low, Jamon's movements were starting to hurt. The contractions were moderate but I wasn't dilating. I would end up having a C-section with my doctor doing two things---delivering my baby and removing a dermoid cyst that might have been there since I was born. But this story isn't about me or my son.

A casualty of life

What motherhood taught me about my better self. BY INA AMOR MEJIA

THE LAST TIME I FELT INVINCIBLE, I came from doing fifty laps in the pool to prepare for a swim match. I remember beating my coach’s stopwatch. Thirty minutes later, I sat in my bedroom, smelling like chlorine, my hair sopping wet, my shoulders hot like coals. A current of endorphins sweeping through my body. I felt like I could do anything. That was twenty years ago. Time passed. I stopped swimming. I stopped dancing. I stopped doing and feeling a lot of things. I just, stopped.

Hello Pluto

WE HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING THE JOURNEY of the Solar Impulse these past few weeks. And I'm sure you've heard of the first images of Pluto taken by the unmanned spacecraft New Horizons. These are exciting times. The first images, historic in many ways, left me yummy shivers last night. I mean look at it. Pluto has been this enigma for so long, and to see it so clearly, and the darkness of space beyond it, just renews the realization of how so much remains unknown to us. In celebration of this incredible event, here is a very cool thing to check out: an interactive page from the BBC called How Big is Space. I promise, it's a lot of fun.

Once again, hello Pluto. And finally a favorite quote: 

"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love" - Carl Sagan