The term “empath” may be familiar to you in reference to the Myers-Briggs scale, indicating someone who is intuitive or feels things. However, if you’re an empath, it’s likely that you already know it. I was an empath even as a small child but didn’t know it for many years because I wasn’t conscious of […]
Discipline
Embracing Vulnerability
Shame and guilt are two emotions that occur together often. They both stem from our sense of right or wrong, but they come at it differently. Shame is about what we think other people might think of us; guilt is more about hurting ourselves. When you feel ashamed it’s usually because you’re thinking of what […]
The Book Is Here!
Living Without Skin: Everything I Never Knew About Fierce Vulnerability is finally here! Click on Buy the Book in the banner above to get your copy today, or find it anywhere books are sold! Feeling vulnerable is frightening.Being fiercely vulnerable is phenomenal. Most of us spend a lifetime trying to avoid pain and insecurity while […]
A Little More Haphazard Blogging
It seems as good a time as any to check back in here, especially since my last post was in November, 2020. I feel pretty confident that none of us were sad to see THAT year go. As we came through the beginning of 2021, it appears many of us were just trying to find […]
My Daughter’s Country
Dear Daughter, Today is the day that we begin the work of building this country for you. I’m sorry that you spent four years watching adults tear each other apart, and feeling confused and frightened about your country. I’m sorry that you experienced a pandemic that was handled incompetently by those trusted to protect you. […]
Rip
The year of ripping, of goodbye, death, of the word “cruel” and being able to say “you are not who I thought you were”, the year of sickness, when the whole world stopped. The year I broke open, and my guts spilled out onto the paper, into the earth, when I learned that spirit is […]
It’s Not Really Work
She was born a caregiver. She’s so smart and can literally do a thousand things at once, and juggle every one down to the detail in her mind. She went to nursing school to learn a trade that would provide an income for her 4 kids and family, but nursing was really her destiny. She […]
Reflections
A decade ago, starting life over. Love, work, school, life. The culmination of a few years of darkness. Painfully shedding the self I had known for 40 years. Moving, kicking and screaming, into the unknown ahead. Midway to end, learning, growing. screaming, learning. Graduating, working, parenting, travelling, learning. New friends, new family, a soul mutt, […]
A Life Affair With Sobriety
Today I celebrate 25 years sober. In a week, I’ll celebrate 52 years of age. It’s a good marking point for reflecting on a life affair with sobriety. I managed to survive the first 17 years without alcohol by honing my sarcastic and comedic skills. I coped with the shit show of my life by […]
September 11
It was a day that altered every life in America in 2001. A day that taught me what patriotism looks like. A day when there was no right, no left, no Republican, no Democrat. It was a day that we were all Americans. A day when parents stopped everything to rush to their children. […]
Community
It’s a word typically used to describe a characteristic of a group of living beings. It’s been used in many different, and quite varied, settings. “Homeless community”. “Church community”. It’s a way that people categorize themselves, identify themselves, and label themselves and others, good and bad. Some communities carry a negative connotation. Some make people […]
The Importance Of Picking A Damn Good Baby Daddy
Dysfunction in my family of origin went unnoticed by me until I started college. Silence in my childhood home was only interrupted by the most mundane of conversations – “what’s for dinner?”, “Unload the dishwasher before I get home.”, “Get your shoes before you miss the bus.” My mother had a new arts and crafts […]