Claire Berger
Since 2020 I’ve had more than enough time for self-reflection. Time spent in lockdown, alone or in an anxious bubble of family members certainly gave me pause to do an emotional inventory of sorts. When so much day-to-day normalcy is stripped from my life, what is left to embrace and appreciate?
Mid-pandemic, I decided to leave everything familiar. I left my west coast home, my steady income and many people I loved, including my adult son and a large circle of friends, and moved across the country from Los Angeles to Brooklyn in a bold attempt at reinvention.
Once I settled into my new Park Slope home, a cozy garden apartment in my daughter and son-in-law’s brownstone, I became a loving neighbor, babysitter, snack cabinet and sleepover pal in my granddaughters’ lives. We have what can be described as both a traditional and offbeat living arrangement. I’m so happy to be here and to have the opportunity to be a part of their everyday.
Once I settled into my new role as live-in grandmother, I launched my career as a freelance writer and landed fabulous clients, including Italian Culinary Adventures. In addition to creating their web site, newsletters and assorted marketing materials, I also have the good fortune to cohost their 2022 culinary trips in Modena Italy, our first-year hosting guests.
Throughout my first year as a New Yorker, I started writing Enough IS Enough. It’s my interactive memoir culled from sixty-six years of a very unpredictable, semi glamorous, intermittently tragic, often hilarious life. Whether conversations about Enough take place in a community center, a cozy window seat, through Zoom or inside someone’s head, my wish is that this collection of essays serve as kindling to spark self-reflection and inspire discussion about the concept of Enough in all aspects of our lives. For more information about my writing, please visit my web site, claireberger.com.