My Annual Maternal Disappearing Act

Mother's Day is upon us...

I have a mandate: Mother’s Day shall be a treated as a sabbatical from my life as a mom/wife/daughter. Last year, I hid-out in a hotel in Laguna Beach and didn’t speak for 24 hours. What a gift to live through a full rotation of the earth without fulfilling a single need besides my own. This year, I cashed in my chips with a five-day trip to Costa Rica, accompanied by my best friend of 20 years. (Pushing it, I know).

As a kid, I was preemptively despondent about a future where I no longer had sleepovers with my girlfriends. It seemed like an unspoken rule that those profoundly intimate relationships would grow increasingly distant, codified, and well, adult. What a relief to find that at 42, I still glean the same comfort from my friends as I did when I was a young girl, if not more. This past week, a plane ride away from our families, my friend Emily and I played with each other’s hair, shirked responsibility, skinny dipped, complained about our families, and confided in one another about our hopes and fears. There was a much greater appreciation for long stretches of silence than there used to be, but mostly, it was the same as it was when we were 20. This trip was a gift to me, but I know first hand how important it is to model this kind of platonic friendship for our kids.

We eased into the trip with two days at a friend's artist retreat, Studio Alto in Playa Grande (available to the public on Airbnb). From there, we drove to Nayara Springs in the Lake Arenal area, a rainforest botanical garden with infinite natural pools, thanks to the nearby volcano. We went to bed at 8:30pm, did yoga, and took mushrooms in an effort to rewire our neural pathways. (If you’re interested in psychedelics as medicine, check out this Radiolab episode).We gorged ourselves on passionfruit and stalked a sloth as it dangled from a sky-high vine in the pouring rain. We were taken with the wildlife, but even more with the feeling of having nowhere to be.

Left: Floating in the thermal baths at Nayara Springs. Right: documenting my rested state before returning to chaos.

I hope you find a place to hide this Mother’s Day, but if you’re fishing for a tangible gift, I am here for that too. Presenting my Mother’s Day Gift Guide, with generous DISCOUNTS from Block Shop, Upstate, Marie Veronique, Maude, and Eva Masaki Eyewear.

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