Changing places -- Sticking the landing -- Chicago -- Keeping watch -- The helicopter -- Turning heads -- Zero -- We will not be intimidated -- Showing up -- Coda -- What we pass on -- We're nearly home -- Letting the silence play out -- The call -- Listen to your own Mom on the radio -- This was Vladimir Putin's fault -- The forces of nature -- Retirement -- We're nearly home (second attempt) -- War -- Curveball -- Darkness and light -- Two walks.

"Ever since she became a parent, Mary Louise Kelly has said "next year." Next year will be the year she makes it to her son James's soccer games (which are on weekdays at 4 p.m., right when she is on the air on NPR's All Things Considered, talking to millions of listeners). Drive carpool for her son Alexander? Not if she wants to do that story about Ukraine and interview the secretary of state. Like millions of parents who wrestle with raising children while pursuing a career, she has never been cavalier about these decisions. The bargain she has always made with herself is this: this time I'll get on the plane, and next year I'll find a way to be there for the mom stuff. Well, James and Alexander are now seventeen and fifteen, and a realization has overtaken Mary Louise: her older son will be leaving soon for college. There used to be years to make good on her promises; now, there are months, weeks, minutes." -- Book jacket.