Five Minutes explores five minutes of a life in one hundred words. Five minutes is edited by Susanna Baird, with editorial support from managing editor Maria s. picone, newsletter editor kate meen, and founding reader bobbi lerman, plus our rotating team of guest readers, who you can meet in the latest newsletteR. Five Minutes was founded in October 2020, with the Salem (Mass.)-based writing group Carrot Cake Writers supplying the journal’s first pieces. We’d love to read your five. Submit here

Nana's Balm

Throat tightening, I wave through the window as my daughter and her family leave. Already I miss the three-year-old cyclone blasting from room to room, a jaunty ponytail streaming behind her. The sudden silence deflates me. I scoop up a picture book under the couch; catch a whiff of infant cream. My heart slows. I feel the baby settle on my chest, his twelve pounds relaxing into me. Were these moments as sweet when I was a young mother or did daily demands dilute them? The past is blurry. Reliving these tender pleasures now brings bliss – when visits are short!

Mary Jane O’Neill is a retired librarian and dramatic interpreter of picture books, not yet home after celebrating her son’s wedding in France. Find Mary Jane on Twitter @MlisJane.

NANA’S BALM was a finalist in Five Minutes’ 2022 Spring Contest: Second Chances. Congratulations, Mary Jane!

A Reflection

A (Non)Smoker