This Valentine’s Day I have two ghosts in my house. One living and one dead. The one who is dead is Laurence Freedom, my partner and fiancé who died six years ago of a sudden heart attack. The one who is living is the first…
The holiday season is often bittersweet. We long for the perfect family picture. Pies. Laughter. Hugs. The sparkle of lights. The closeness of family. Yet, underneath there may be a longing, or a sense of discomfort that’s hard to identify. Susan Cain describes bittersweetness in…
I watched the evening news tonight and saw a nine-year-old boy and his mother fleeing Ukraine. His father was staying to defend their country. The little boy told the reporter that Putin is a monster. I looked at this little boy’s face and his mother’s…
Today marks the second anniversary of my dear friend Sue’s transition. As young stay-at-home moms in the 1980s, Sue and I met at The Mothers’ Center Group in Virginia Beach, Virginia. We found this program at a time when a large percentage of mothers were…
It can be difficult to witness the people we love in emotional pain. Oftentimes we try to fix it. Make it better. Talk them out of it. What if we instead stopped talking, and starting walking through the pain with them? Emotions come up for…
Oprah Winfrey’s widely viewed interview last night with Meghan and Harry has me reflecting on a psychological assessment I was asked to write in February 2020 for a book scheduled to be released later that year regarding what was then being referred to as “Megxit.”…