Children Questioning Rules
The Hidden Lesson in Projection: It’s Never Really About Us
“What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.” ~Don Miguel Ruiz
For most of my life, I didn’t fully understand what projection was. I just knew I kept becoming the problem.
I was “too much.” Too intense. Too emotional. Thought too deeply. Spoke too plainly.
Again and again, I was blamed, misunderstood, and cast out for holding up a mirror to things no one wanted to see.
But in my forties, I began doing …
A Quiet but Powerful Shift: How Slowing Down Transformed My Life
“Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast—you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” ~Eddie Cantor
In today’s hyper-connected and fast-paced world, slowing down isn’t just rare—it feels almost countercultural.
For years, I tied my identity to productivity. My self-worth hinged on how much I could accomplish in a day, how many boxes I could check. The busier I was, the more valuable I believed myself to be. But that constant need to perform left me mentally and emotionally drained, disconnected not only from others but …
You Don’t Have to Be Strong All the Time
“Sometimes the strongest thing you can do is to ask for help.” ~Unknown
We live in a world that praises strength—especially quiet strength. The kind that shows up, gets things done, and rarely complains. The kind that’s resilient, dependable, productive. But what happens when the strong one quietly breaks inside?
“You are a superwoman!”
“You’re so reliable!”
“You’re the glue that holds everyone together.”
I wore those compliments like badges of honor. For years, I believed them. Not just believed them—I built my identity around them.
I’ve always been a multitasker. A jack of all trades. I managed work, home, …
When the Body Freezes: On Love and Grief in Midlife
“I was constantly seeking a balance between mourning what’s already been lost, making space for the time and moments we still had left, and making sense of this complicated process that felt like my heart was split between two contrasting realities: hope and heartbreak.” ~Liz Newman
There is a quiet heaviness that begins to settle into many of us in midlife.
It doesn’t announce itself with drama. It slips in through unanswered emails from an aging parent, through half-slept nights spent wondering how we will ever afford live-in care, or whether that one fall they had was the beginning …
When Friendship Is One-Sided: Letting Go of Someone Who Was Never Really There
“Finally, I realized that I was never asking too much. I was just asking the wrong person.” ~Unknown
Friendship should nourish the soul. And in my life, for the most part, it has. I have a small, longstanding circle of friends steeped in a long-shared history. We’re basically a real-life, thirty-five-year-long John Hughes film.
However, every now and then, a hornet in disguise has buzzed into my life and stung.
He was one of them. A bad sting.
Love Bombing
Right off the bat, knowing him felt amazing.
I was still reeling from the aftereffects of living with an abusive …
Finding Balance Through the Full Spectrum of Emotion
“As a solid rock is not shaken by the wind, the wise are not shaken by praise or blame.” ~The Dhammapada, Verse 81
Some moments lift you like moonlight. Others break you like a wave. I’ve lived through both—and I’ve come to believe that the way we move through these emotional thresholds defines who we become.
By thresholds, I mean the turning points in our lives—experiences so vivid, painful, or awe-filled that they pull us out of our usual routines and bring us face to face with something real. Some come in silence, others with sound and …
The Song That Surprisingly Brought Me Back to Life
“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” ~Maya Angelou
I used to believe that healing and personal transformation required a lot of effort—writing page after page in a journal or getting up at the crack of dawn to carry out a morning routine, to name a couple.
When I moved through a phase of numbness—or the tunnel of darkness, as I now call it—it was frightening, and there seemed to be no end in sight. But one song found me at the right moment and changed everything.
In …
How to Be Well in Unwell Times
If you wake up anxious these days, you’re not alone. Between the news cycle, global uncertainty, and the chaos of daily life, it can feel like the world is spinning faster than we can catch our breath.
I’ve been feeling more anxious than usual myself lately—partly because of everything happening in my own life, and partly because so much in the world feels beyond our control. And yet, even in times like these, it’s still possible to find a sense of calm—to create a small pocket of peace within yourself that isn’t so easily shaken by what’s happening outside.
That’s
The Enormous Cost of Being the One Who Holds Everything Together
“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” ~Virginia Woolf
There’s a kind of work in our society that doesn’t come with a title or pay, and for a long time, I didn’t even notice I was doing it. I just lived inside it. It shaped my days, my stress, my identity.
These days, I see it more clearly. I can name it now. I don’t only live inside it, but I still return to it—especially as a parent, especially when things stretch thin. The difference is now, I pause. I reflect. I ask myself if I have to
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