“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ~C. S. Lewis I started life in a poor household with one parent who left when I was very little, never to be seen or heard from again, and another who stuck around but made it very clear I wasn’t…
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” ~Rumi I watched my son get hit by his father, and something inside me finally broke open. Not broke apart. Broke open. There’s a difference. For years, I had absorbed the chaos. I had made myself smaller, quieter, more accommodating. I had convinced myself that if I could just love…
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” ~Marcus Aurelius Gratitude. It used to be a very triggering concept for me, and sometimes it still is. It’s been a process to unravel what it means to me and to be okay with days…
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” ~Viktor Frankl For a while, I forgot about that space. When conflict entered my life—first with my employer, then with my insurance company—I didn’t react explosively. I didn’t fire off reckless emails. I did something that felt far more reasonable. I…
“True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.” ~Brené Brown This past year, during a season of transition in my life, I started working part-time as a bridal stylist at a wedding dress store. It was something I had quietly dreamed about for years. I’ve always loved wedding dresses…
“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.” ~African Proverb It is just past ten in the morning on a Tuesday. My wet boardshorts and blue tank top are drying at lightning speed in the sweltering South Indian sun. I am feeling alive and exhilarated after my surf session in the surreal blue, bathtub-warm Arabian…
“You are not stuck with the brain you have. You can make it better.” ~Dr. Daniel Amen At the beginning of the year, I had this whole list in my head about the benefits of dry January: drop a few pounds, sleep better, get those bright white eyes everyone raves about. The standard results you think you would get if you avoided alcohol…
“I used to tolerate a lot because I didn’t want to lose people. Now I set boundaries because I don’t want to lose myself.” ~Anonymous I used to feel stretched and depleted in my own life, drained by obligations, and confused about why I felt overwhelmed even when everything looked ‘fine.’ At the time, I didn’t connect this exhaustion…
“Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” ~Louise L. Hay There it was—glaringly obvious on the page. An embarrassing typo stared back at me from the backside of a brochure I’d received from the printer. A brochure I wrote, laid out, and yes, gave the final…
“Sometimes growth doesn’t look like becoming more—it looks like leaving behind what no longer fits.” For a long time, I believed that outgrowing a friendship meant I had failed at it. That belief took root early, at boarding school, where friendships weren’t just social—they were survival. We didn’t see each other for a few hours a day. We lived…
