Heidi Mae Bratt, at The Blogs

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Jul 28, 2017, 5:33 PM

Life’s a Beach

Life’s a beach, and then you dive. A variation on another familiar saying, but one I think is more fun and much more optimistic. The sand, the surf, the constancy of the sun, the ebb and flow of the tides, what lies on the surface,...

Dec 21, 2016, 10:53 PM

Snow. It’s not political. Not controversial. Not connected to any religious affiliation. It’s just white. And cold. And yet, it evokes strong emotion. Ah! The picturesque white stuff! The pristine blanket! The twinkle at night! The quiet! Oy! The digging of the car! The slowed-down...

Nov 23, 2016, 2:01 AM

Long Journey into the Day

A day in the life. It was a recent Sunday and we had plans to attend a cousin’s engagement party in Brooklyn. That morning, a friend texted me, and sent an article that had appeared a few hours earlier on one of the Jewish websites about...

Nov 21, 2016, 4:42 PM

Curtain Up! All the World’s a Stage

I was 12 when I saw my first Broadway play. It was Tina’s 12th birthday and her gift was a night of theater, and I was luckily Tina’s plus one (we actually were three, including Tina’s mother.) I remember that night vividly. It was a special...

Oct 1, 2016, 1:32 AM

New Years Past and Future

“Even a new pair of pantyhose” was the advice. A new item of clothing: socks, pantyhose, stockings, a pair of shoes, a dress, a skirt, a blouse, a hair ornament — no matter, but something new (not borrowed or necessarily blue) was a tradition to mark the...

Aug 27, 2016, 1:24 AM

Filling the Pages

I love a fresh notebook. Especially for a writer, a notebook is a wide-open expanse for ideas. The truth is, most of my notebooks aren’t filled with the big ideas, but rather the scribbles of notes I take for assignments. If not my notes for a...

Aug 2, 2016, 6:33 AM

Do You Believe in Magic?

I was thrilled when Yehuda read Macbeth. It brought back memories of my sixth grade speak-out, a poetry-performance competition that I won in that grade. At the time, I had not read the Shakespearean play, nor did I understand the significance of the three witches who steer...

Jun 30, 2016, 9:12 PM

Pomp and Circumstance

There is a photograph of me clad in a light blue graduation gown. My head is cocked slightly as I stand next to and lean into my father’s erect pose. My cascading hair is even bigger than my smile – which is big. (It was the 90s,...

May 26, 2016, 7:45 PM

Bringing Home the Dough

I don’t do flour. That’s been my kitchen rule for a very long time. I cook, and I’ve learned to prepare and master many a tasty dish for the Shabbat meal, but when it comes to baking desserts or challah, then it’s hello to my friends,...

Apr 29, 2016, 8:46 AM

Journey Forward Begins with One Step

Snow in April was about as likely as my brother-in-law’s cancer diagnosis. Tall and fit, with a striking resemblance to Bill Bradley, the American Hall of Fame basketball player and former New Jersey Democratic U.S. senator, Frank, my husband Jeff’s brother, got the news in...

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About Me

Heidi Mae Bratt is an award-winning journalist and the editor of About Our Children, the parenting magazine for the Jewish Standard.