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Basic Joy

Anne Bentley Waddoups

“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

— Mary Oliver

Hello, I'm Annie, an American living in Australia. Writer, researcher, professor, mum. Enthusiast: developmental psych, innovation, ideas, travel, design, stories, and a good laugh.

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“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”

— Wendell Berry

First time here?
A few posts to get you started:

Marriage
Passing the bridge of sighs
A modest proposal
A modest proposal ii
Adeste fideles

Life
Uncurbed enthusiasm
Liner notes to growing up
Sunday dinner @ 135
Playing big
In praise of late bloomers

Parenting
Triptych
Bless her heart
Paging EB White
Nine and a half
Madeleine, 16
Keystone parents
She holds these truths
Louie, Louie

Latest Instagrams:

Capitol Hill picnic at the Memorial Day concert dress rehearsal 🇺🇸

"The most exciting movement in nature is not progress, advance, but expansion and contraction...an eye, a heart, a mind. We throw our arms wide with a gesture of religion to the universe; we close them around a person." (Robert Frost)
Joyful, deep and memorable day: Samuel in the temple.

I'm grateful for my spot on this generational chain, soaking up abundant motherlove and wisdom from my exceptional mom and trying my imperfect-darnedest to pass it along to my daughters and son.
•

Also the kids in church today sang "Your Mother and Mine" from Peter Pan, a tender unconventional selection that gave me a case of the weepy nostalgias for both young childhood and young motherhood. Because I don't "often go walking in meadows of clover" but Peter Pan was a staple of my childhood and my kids'.

Here today, Ghana tomorrow! •She's off on a three month microfinance internship/adventure. Precious cargo, Air Maroc. •Tough + sweet two-year goodbye for these two sibs.

Last Lunch choice of Mlle. @Madeleinebw : Shake Shack at Madison Square Park. 🏆🍔☀️👨‍👧

Thought provoking and clever. (The play, too, #padumpum)

Reading:

What is it like to live in another's shoes? In a refugee camp? War zone? UN piloting Virtual Reality experience at https://t.co/CejRykwT2T
about a month ago
What can we do? "Increase your courage, increase your love, and give hugs to someone you don't know" @AnwarKhan_IRUSA #dpingo #UN
about a month ago
RT @LizOstler: We are often talked about but not talked with. @AnwarKhan_IRUSA #Islam #focusonfaith #Refugees #dpingo
about a month ago

Writing Elsewhere:

Segullah
Letters to a Parent
Nest and Launch

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