Nerissa 

1. Paris. Though I could just as easily have endorsed "taking a vacation with just your husband." Tom and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary and our combined 100 years by taking the advice of our own song, "Ten Year Tin." We left the kids with someones

more than vaguely competent (one of them being Katryna) and took a trip across the sea. Flying over the Atlantic and then seeing Europe emerge around 6am, bleary though I was, was one of the biggest thrills I've had. What a miracle air travel is. What a miracle Paris is! So ancient, so modern, so...je ne sais crois. We strolled along the Seine, went for morning runs in the Tulleries, marveled at Rodin statues, ate delicious fresh food, read our books and had no arguments with anyone about whether or not to brush teeth or practice violin. I love nothing in the world more than my kids. I missed them like crazy. And I highly endorse the practice of taking time off from the nonstop job of parenting, if you should be so lucky as to have amazing friends and family to watch your dear ones while you remember who you used to be before you were Mama.

2.. Writing It Up in the Garden Summer Retreats!

Mid-April, three different parent/writer friends told me the secret of their success: get up at 5am to write. I decided to try it, and now I am hooked! But I promise not to make you wake up at 5am if you come to one of my summer retreats. Instead, you can sleep in, while I prepare your extra strong coffee or tea, roll into my house and write all day long, along with delightful comrades, regular doses of inspiration and delicious, healthy food, and even a labyrinth to walk. There's one spot left in my Adirondack Retreat June 26-28, and a few spots left in the weeklong WIUITG Summer Camp, July 6-10. For more information, go here. And one more plug for my writers and guitar students: on Tuesday June 16, from 6-8pm, we'll be taking our show on the road! Join us for an evening of music and literature at the Parlor Room in Northampton. Writing It Up in the Garden writers will read short excerpts from ongoing works, and my HooteNanny Parent Guitar class will sing two songs (yes, they can sing, too--in 3 part harmony! VERY talented parents!)

3. Far From the Tree--I know I wrote about this last month, but hey. It's a gigantic book. I actually finished it, though it took me all month to do so. I listened to the author read it, AND I borrowed my friend Liz's copy to read, as well. Andrew Solomon (writer for the New York Times Magazine and the New Yorker; author of many other books, including The Noonday Demon) interviewed hundreds of families for this book and spent ten years writing it. He starts with the premise that all parents (desperately, sometimes unconsciously) want their children to validate them, to reflect back to them the values they themselves have chosen. When this happens, a vertical identity is created; we feel the vertical identity in terms of race, class, sometimes gender, sometimes religion. But what happens when the child is significantly different? What if s/he is gay? Or deaf? Or a prodigy? In these cases, the child needs to create his/her own community, or a horizontal identity. What does the parent do, then? Struggle to get the child to conform to the world of the parent? Or join the child in his/her world, even when that world may be baffling or incomprehensible? This is a big, generous book about sacrifice, heartbreak, but also triumph, insight, growth and most of all, love. I was particularly impressed with the chapter on Transgender, and also on the first and last chapters, in which Solomon writes of his own journey as a gay man, from struggles over his identity with his parents to his own road to parenthood. (Read an excerpt about this here.) 

And now I am going to stick my nose into my new book: All the Light We Cannot See...

THIS IS IT, FOLKS! Question #17 of XVII!

To celebrate the release of our 17th album, XVII, we've held a weekly story contest for the past 17 weeks. Each Monday we've posted a question for our friends and fans to answer. The stories we've heard have been more than we could have expected: some funny, others poignant, all revelatory. The winner each week receives a digital copy of the new album and we print their story on Nerissa's website.

This is our last week, and in our last question we're asking for your thoughts on how to mark this amazing year. Thanks to everyone who participated over the last several weeks!

Week 17 Question: How should we spend our 25th anniversary year? 2016 will mark our 25th anniversary of being The Nields. In 2011, we had Jam for the Fans for our 20th anniversary: a weekend long celebration in Northampton that included a fan showcase, a family show, a full band show at the Iron Horse featuring all 5 original members of the Nields, and a Sunday Gospel brunch. How should we top this for year 25? To participate, go here and tell us! If we like your answer best, you get a free download of XVII plus an original postcard by Katryna that looks something like this: