The Digest: The timeless rituals keeping me sane from winter to spring

Isabella, a subscriber who went to high school with me, asked me this week, “How is it being a full-time writer?”

Someday, I hope to write full-time.

Today? I’m a part-time nanny with a full-time preoccupation about whether I’m writing enough to someday transition to full-time.

To correct the narrative, I played around with the idea of a “day in my life” schedule. I commute into Manhattan every afternoon around 1:30 or 2 p.m. I walk my second grader to her activities and finish her homework before ...