SANDY RIGUZZI: The Blog as a Window to Understanding Life

Published: Oct. 29, 2020, 9 p.m.

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On the surface, today\\u2019s guest, blogger Sandy Riguzzi, seems like\\xa0 a perfectly ordinary mom and grand mother from suburban New York.\\xa0 Yet the depth of her experience, which she mines as the source of her writing on Sunday Morning with Sandy, is anything but ordinary.

Sandy is deeply reflective of the challenges she has faced growing up and raising five children. And from what I\\u2019ve seen she has faced plenty\\u2014abuse, disease, divorce, alcoholism and parenting a child with Down Syndrome. On her blog,\\xa0 she elevates the real day-to-day heartbreak and fears and the small victories of life to heart-felt, honest prose that feels like graceful literary commentary.\\xa0

In some ways, Sandy is the perfect model for my efforts in this podcast to get us all to notice,\\xa0 to raise our awareness of the extraordinary presence of ordinary people all around us. As I look back, Sandy is the most extraordinary of the extraordinary Interesting Humans who\\u2019ve been guests on this podcast. Our conversation is a lot like the transparency of her blog and I found it deeply refreshing and instructive and we talk about the ways one\\u2019s life experiences can feed our writing. With a matter-of-factness that you will realize is very authentic, Sandy discusses her unique writing process that sometimes has her staying up all night on Saturday just to hit publish on Sunday morning.\\xa0

She reveals how she approaches blogging about her own very personal\\xa0 struggles with abuse as a young girl and again at the hand of her second husband and how those struggles have deeply affected her relationships with men.\\xa0 And we cross over discussing blending experiences like her daughter\\u2019s COVID diagnosis, her eldest son\\u2019s substance abuse issues, embracing her ex-husband\\u2019s wife and daughter as her own family, and her joy in what she calls \\u201cthe glue that holds this family together,\\u201d her son, Joe, who has Down Syndrome into blog posts.

Her blog is her life.\\xa0 Though not much is out of bounds for her writing, Sandy says\\xa0 there are still some things she has chosen not to write about \\u201cuntil my kids are older, those will be in the book.\\u201d\\xa0

Frank, warm and engaging, Sandy is a thoughtful and wise conversationalist. I came away from our conversation with\\xa0 a respect for how she walks that tightrope of respecting the family she writes about and writing authentically. So grab a cup of coffee and go sit on your favorite chair and listen to my conversation with Sandy Riguzzi. Hope you enjoy today\\u2019s episode of Interesting Humans.
Where to find Sandy:
Web: Sunday Morning with Sandy
Instagram: Sunday Morning With Sandy
Facebook: Sunday Morning with Sandy
Pinterest: Sunday Morning with Sandy
One of my favorite posts from her blog: https://sundaymorningwithsandy.com/2020/08/18/a-few-thoughts-and-having-faith/

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