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The Quiet Rebellion

(by Aubrey Clyburn)

My mother sent me a recipe recently for something called “Warming Grain-Free Breakfast Cereal.” It contains, among other things, pumpkin seeds, goji berries, and half of a Bosc pear. I saved the email. I know full well that I will not be making that dish.


Every so often she does things like that—suggests recipes, sends me health books, offers me chia seed pudding. I always take whatever it is and put it somewhere I don’t have to look at it and she doesn’t have to watch me ignore it. It is her way of apologizing, and my way of accepting.