Let Responsibility Lie Where It Belongs

August 28, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

I was raised to be a fixer. Right up there with people pleaser, it’s a hard practice to shake. Recently, I’ve been struggling with my husband’s new habit of staying up late. I worry about whether or not he’s getting enough sleep, and concerned that he’ll hurt his neck if he falls asleep sitting up. […]

July 31, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

In my family of origin, the emphasis was on drama – who is doing what, and how they should change it. It was akin to a herd of cats all chasing each others tails. I understand now that this the dance of co-dependency. It’s a hard pattern to break free from. Bottomline is that I […]

Rewrite

May 22, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

Lives are built around the stories we are told. If we have any sense of creativity, at all, we will rewrite those stories to broaden the scope of possibility. I told a former suitor once that I was not destined to be loved. It was the story I had been told growing up. Smarter than […]

Walls and Boundaries

January 24, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

I wasn’t taught about boundaries as a child, in fact, I was encouraged not to have any. No one said so, specifically, but in the drive to please, I came to this interpretation. Walls, however, grew organically. I remember many a time, curled up on my childhood bed, raging and in tears, repeating over and over: ”I need nothing; […]

Tantrums

January 10, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

The discussion was light, or so I thought. Until I mentioned that one thing that ignites his rage. Doesn’t matter what it is, does it? We all have it – that tender spot of unresolved emotion. There was no more talking to him, so I moved on; finishing a task I had previously started. But now my anger flared. He […]

Adolescence

May 24, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Poem and image my own

Boundaries

April 12, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Where is Home?

February 28, 2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

I ask my three-year-old self to show me her home, and she points to the floor beneath the formica-topped table in the kitchen. There, caged within the chrome legs of table and chairs, she is out of the path of adult legs, whose movements are as unpredictable as their moods. I ask my four-year-old self […]

Finishing Foundations

September 9, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

I turned to God when my foundation was shaking, only to find that God was shaking my foundation. – unknown I’ve carried this quotation with me since my early thirties, a time when the bottom fell out of my life and I fell into a deep abyss of depression and mental breakdown (or breakthrough, as […]

Thriving Under Pressure: TEDx Talk

March 4, 2018.Reading time less than 1 minute.

One of my favourite bloggers is Dr. Andrea Dinardo whose posts offer straightforward, and sometimes tough advice for how deal with stress and develop resilience. Especially poignant for students, her message is now available through TEDx video. Dr. Dinardo’s blog, Thriving Under Pressure is available here.