Tag: life
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It’s the Least Wonderful Time of the Year
Dreadful January. After all the cheery decorations get packed away, the friends and relatives end the revelry and return to their respective homes, and we all stop eating special foods to celebrate every single holiday, we are faced with a sobering reality. With its bills piling up and short daylight hours, January strips us of…
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Incompatible
She looked me up and down. “Are you ready to go fishing?” she asked. “Yes!” I enthusiastically responded. “In THAT?!?” I was much younger than I am now, but I will never forget this conversation. I was wearing a miniskirt and stilettos. I looked dressed up for a night on the town (if your idea…
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We Don’t Talk (Enough) About Mirabel…
I first watched a movie long ago (and many times since) that truly touched my soul, as is often the case for viewers of many incredibly emotionally moving films out there. I am not unique – this particular movie has spoken to countless people around the globe. Several songs in it became instant successes practically…
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Boundaries Matter
As we stare into the vortex of peak chaos that we call the holiday season (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the start of a new year…), chalk full of festivities with friends and family, allow me to be the first to reassure you that your boundaries matter. Your feelings matter. If no one else will validate…
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Embrace the Pivot
For years, I was writing a book about my healing journey. It took so long to write because I am a procrastinator, it contained difficult material, and life threw painful curveballs at me constantly. I even wrote a chapter titled “The Book That Almost Wasn’t” because when I really knuckled down to write, in 2018,…
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A New Norm
The phrase we have all grown to despise since COVID lockdowns busted onto the scene and mask mandates were commonplace. This is not a blog in support or opposing certain political views about public response to a virus, but I think we can all agree that whatever we believe about that time, it was hard…
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If Only…
While walking through the highs and lows of processing difficult trauma, I hit a stage of grief that many call bargaining. But since I know I can’t rewrite the past, I don’t like to call it that. Bargaining suggests that I have some leveraging power to change my situation through negotiation. In the aftermath of…
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Living Half a Life
Well after I encountered trauma, about the time my children came into my life, I began to have a recurring dream. From the very beginning, the dream would always make it clear to me that my life was blessed. The house in my dream was always perfect on the outside and impeccably decorated within. My…
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Dear Younger Me
I look back on photos of a slimmer, slightly less wrinkled version of myself and I don’t wish I was her all over again. But I do wish I could talk to her. I wish I could sit with her and listen as she unpacked her pain. I wish I could help her make heads…
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Enemies, Foreign…and Domestic
I took a solemn oath when I enlisted in the Army that I would defend the United States Constitution against enemies both foreign and domestic. During training, I was taught how to fight the enemy. Sadly, nobody took the time back then to prepare me for the battle brought into my life near the end…
Wisdom from the Trenches 