This vulnerable resolution involves you, too, my reader

Ancient zen housekeeping etiquette is still a good lesson for today

Sometimes a mood just needs a reset

Managing my delayed crisis response

Sometimes we need encouragement to find our way back

Survival strategies for that most wonderful time of the year

Words matter. Please do not misuse the feminist lexicon.

Patriotism is as complicated as ever

How to figure out what brand of shit you’re dealing with

Pandemic lessons from a chronic pain sufferer

How the death of my father-in-law triggered old trauma

Coming to gratitude kicking and screaming

How your decision not to vaccinate affects me

I love my friends and my family. They have awesome taste and are interesting people. But you know what? They are a terrible audience for me. Truly crap. To a great extent, they do not read my work at all, and those that do have little or nothing outside of “good job” to say about it.

I thought it was all about self-examination. I was right and I was wrong.

In the video game world, if you get enough points, you go to another level where you have more skills and strengths and also new challenges. This is sometimes referred to as “leveling up.” That is about all I know about video games. But I have figured out a few things about leveling up outside of video gaming.

hard to hear no. But in Japanese, at least at first, it is even harder to say it. Yes and no are two of the first words I wanted to learn when I went to Japan. I remember clearly asking my friends how to say these words. They quickly taught me “hai” for yes. That was easy. But when it came to no, they hesitated to give a translation.

I have never watched my wedding video. It was so important to me back then to record it but it has never occurred to me to watch it. When my kids were growing up I took thousands of pictures of them. I had them printed, bought photo albums, and sorted those pictures into them. But have rarely looked at them.

I am a person who has spent my life not understanding loyalty. I thought I did. I thought I was the most loyal person around. I was loyal to my friends, my family, and anything and anyone I associated with.

Suddenly realizing who my people are and who I am to them