The Second Magpie is a joyfinding journal written by Jenny Fiore, author of Speaking to the Mountain, After Birth: Unconventional Writing from the Mommylands, and the former Momplex blog (some of which has been migrated here). Jenny is also a Puschart Prize Special Mention honoree for literary nonfiction for her work published in Brain, Child magazine. Her short works have appeared in numerous collections, including Listen to Your Mother: What She Said Then, What We’re Saying Now, named one of POPSUGAR’s Best Books of 2015 and lauded in Elle, Parents, Cosmopolitan, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Real Simple, and more.
Like a magpie, I’ve always been drawn to things that have sparkle, from rhinestone-embellished housewares to gold lamé get-ups in second-hand stores to shoes that reflect in the sun. But in my interactions with the world, oh, how I can fixate on the not-sparkly stuff: ill-timed traffic lights, a web page that won’t load, the impolite server. Post-pandemic, I took to saying, “Everything’s broken, and nothing works.” It’s not good for the soul, and as a lifelong writer, I’ve noticed it’s also not good for creativity. This blog is about redirecting my attention to what’s good in the world — seeking and finding joy in the same way I notice sparkly objects around me — and writing about it. There is an old nursery rhyme about magpies, “One for Sorrow,” which tells us a solitary magpie symbolizes sorrow, but two magpies symbolize joy.
The Second Magpie 