Personal Growth
A 9-11 Prayer for a Pinprick.
Looking around at the children’s innocent faces, I thought, “What kind of world are they growing up in?”
Continue ReadingMotherhood Lessons from an Empty Nest
I’m a slow learner of life sometimes, so the universe (or God, or a higher power) has no choice but to thwack me on the head with a spiritual 2X4 to make me pay attention. My biggest thwack was my son’s brain tumor.
Continue ReadingCan people-pleasing be inherited?
Neither my mother nor my father would ever say a bad word about anyone. If they had nothing nice to say, they said nothing at all. It was an admirable trait, and my parents were formidable role models.
Continue ReadingLet hope choose you.
I had this blog almost ready to send Wednesday morning. It started like this: “I choose hope in 2021, in spite of everything that could still go wrong—COVID, political turmoil, record snowstorms like we had here in upstate NY last week, failing to get a book deal.” Had I sent it, I would have felt foolish. That afternoon, watching the siege of the US Capital unfold, my hope was overpowered by fear and bewilderment. Yet hope still chooses me.
Continue ReadingLiving Life Small Leaves Room for Growth
Living life large seems to be what society values. Why didn’t it feel right for me?
Continue ReadingOur Wake of Kindness
Sometimes, what looks like conflict-aversion is really a choice to be kind.
Continue ReadingAccountability matters–here's why.
Holding others accountable is hard for people-pleasers because it involves confrontation, which carries the risk of rejection. It’s less scary to pretend negative things don’t happen.
Continue ReadingPandemic Brain
Pandemic Brain is like a pinball machine. When I realized that was what was going on, I already felt better. Funny how naming a problem can do that.
Continue ReadingVulnerability, humility, and ego.
A recent coffee flood and ego-boosting news from the New York Times tie together many threads.
Continue ReadingRacism is hidden within ourselves.
So what am I gonna do about racism? That’s the question we’re all asking ourselves, isn’t it?
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