setting boundaries

Are you sacrificing the peace within you to keep the peace around you?

Being kind with difficult people, while setting boundaries.

happiness

119 scientifically proven ways to be happier

One of my all-time favorite topics. Okay so maybe 119 ways to feel happier feels a little overwhelming. So cherry pick. Try two, or six or twenty…. This guest post is from Health Grinder. Everyone wants to be happy. We’ve all experienced it at different points in our lives. And the feeling is so good […]

Jesus

Losing her religion

First published on Purple Clover. I have no doubt I helped destroy my daughter’s faith in God, although I myself, still believe in God, god, in some form or another. As Tina grew up, my higher power shifted from a His Will Be Done Christian to a genderless “divine force in the universe” with good […]

On Grown & Flown

I’m delighted I found Grown & Flown, a website and blog about parenting older kids (ages 15 to 25). Grown & Flown recently published my essay “Why I Stopped Worrying If My College Daughter Was Lonely” Tina is a thousand times more self-loving and grounded than I was at her age. This is probably why […]

Stop letting seniors off the hook for saying horrible stuff

We’re all guilty of this. We slip out a horrible or ignorant comment, cringe, then wish we could take our words back. Before I was became a mom I once asked a very pregnant friend who mentioned she was going to the beach, “Do pregnant women go to the beach?” “I mean I know they can but […]

The Pulse tragedy. What finally made me cry

After my city’s tragedy, the world’s tragedy, I didn’t cry. Oh my eyes welled up a little, but I was too shocked, too devastated, too in despair to fully release my horror. I could not cry because perhaps if I did, I might not stop. For years and reasons that no longer matter, I’ve learned […]

Remember. Advice to my daughter as she graduates high school.

Remember to stand tall. Shoulders back. Head up. Carry yourself with the spectacular you are. The world will treat you as you expect to be treated. You are mighty and deserving. Remember that humility is not the opposite of confidence. Humility is to ask, to listen, to learn and to grow. Remember to apologize. Do […]

One reason I love life (but the point where my grace ends)

Image credit One of the many reasons I love life is the unexpected synchronicity that happens all the time…. Driving traffic-clogged I-4 at 6:50 this morning to get to the YMCA prayer breakfast, I responded (okay, yelled) at the radio because a well-spoken but clearly wrong (by the discrimination yardstick) Baptist Minister explained to the radio […]

Feeling joy: living intentionally to re-wire your brain

As it turns out, we humans adapt pretty well to feeling awful or to living the less dire but equally joyless neutral and numb existence. Kids, relationships, jobs, falling finances and health vie for every inch of our energy. For some, crippling pain or depression or anxiety or loneliness overshadows sensations of joy, stifling an […]

Good girls don’t get the corner office

Image: Wikipedia “Teach your daughters to resolve conflicts, take risks, tout their strengths and “check your good girl at the door,” writes Rachel Simmons in her book, The Curse of the Good Girl. Gender stereotypes start young. Instead of taking risks and honing their leadership skills young women unwittingly sabotage their success by questioning their abilities […]