“What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” ~Helen Keller Growing up, I thought my father was a pack rat. He never seemed to throw anything away. Bent nails. Odd screws. Washers without matching bolts. Short pieces of lumber that looked […]

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” ~John Muir I used to think life was like an obstacle course, a series of hurdles you either cleared or stumbled over. For a long time, I stumbled a lot. What I didn’t realize then was how easily repeated setbacks can turn into a […]

“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.” ~Alexander Den Heijer  He was intelligent, well-read, and kind. A good father, careful about protecting his kids from meeting partners too soon. A man with a life philosophy, who kept his word, who […]

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” ~Viktor Frankl A few weeks ago, I moved to a new city for a new job, leaving behind a quiet hill town where I had built five years of friendships, routines, and a version of myself I understood […]

“The fuel of life is feeling. If we’re not filled up in childhood, we must fill ourselves as adults.” ~Jonice Webb, author of Running on Empty I was nine years old the first time I taught myself how to disconnect completely from my emotions. It started with a secret I wasn’t supposed to […]

“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.” ~Marie Curie I almost didn’t go to my cousin’s wedding. Not because I didn’t want to celebrate her. I did. But the thought of walking into a room full of people who knew the version of me from two years ago […]

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” ~Maya Angelou The weekend started like any other family visit. Our family was in town, and it began with real excitement. Kids running everywhere, chocolate chip muffins in the oven, homemade ice cream for our guests, the […]

“Rule your mind or it will rule you.” ~Buddha Some mornings I wake before dawn and lie still, listening for signs that the house is awake. A cough down the hallway. The sound of a drawer opening. Water running softly in the kitchen sink. My mother is ninety-seven years old now, and before my […]

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” ~Rumi The room didn’t change when she left. The chair was where it had always been, angled toward the window the way she liked it. What changed was that I could finally see the shape of the thing I’d been leaning on, now that it wasn’t […]

“Every moment, every challenge, every inner reaction is here to show you exactly what you need to let go of in order to be free.” ~Michael A. Singer The other day, while standing in the kitchen, I grabbed my phone to send a text, but it didn’t recognize my face. Suddenly, every time I wanted […]