Summary

In the opening chapter, I Miss You When I Blink, Mary Laura Philpott explains to the reader how she came up with the name for the book. Her six-year-old was drawing on the floor of her office when he mumbled the phrase, "and I miss you when I blink" (1). As he kept rhyming, Mary pinned the phrase to her bulletin board. It was a phrase that stuck with her as she pondered how she could use the song in writing. Years later, she also realized that "you could even say it to yourself" (2). This phrase was part of many phrases that she describes can "give structure to the chaos and help life make a little more sense" (2). It also proved to help her live in the moment, especially in regard to watching her children grow older...