Positive attitude is one thing. Denial is something else again…
Numbers Do Not Lie
We’d been at it for several hours, side by side, each of us on our laptops. Spread on the small ottoman pressing against my knees were stacks of old tax forms. On the chair beside me, two more folders with notes and figures. We actually began the process days ago, but I couldn’t continue, and […]
Why We Sweat the Small Stuff
When the small stuff adds up…
Building Bridges
Reaching out a second time around can be an overwhelming challenge.
Living Together – Separately
Are you part of a non-traditional couple? Committed or married, but not actually living in the same residence as your partner? Living together can be tough. Very tough. I’m reminded of an early episode of Sex and the City, in which Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie asks her love interest, Mr. Big, what his ideal living […]
Painting Over
Our walls, ourselves, our children.
It Takes Two Hands to Hold the Mirror Steady
My mother was beautiful, stunning really – 1940s movie star stunning. She had black curly hair, pearly teeth decades before bleaching and veneers, wide-set hazel eyes, and lush, arching brows that gave her face softness. Her nose was fine, and her full lips were painted deep red, shimmering coral, occasionally pink. She wore no other […]
Courage
Sometimes our children surprise us. Really surprise us. I remember my older son defending his much littler brother against a bully, a kid who was beefier than both of them put together. But my first-born threw himself into the fray without hesitation, and got the bully to back off. Flash forward nine years. That bully […]
Breast-Fed Boomer Boy: How NOT to Pick Up a Girl
Baby Boomer pickup line… FAIL.
Bread Crumbs, Stale Crusts, Potions: I Don’t Talk About My Ex
They aren’t lies, exactly – the things I say to my children about their father. I don’t talk about my ex much – not with them, and certainly not here except obliquely. Yet you may sense him in the background. An occasional presence, a haze, a storm brewing. You