In Times of Conflict and Heightened Emotion, Remember
What If 2026 Could Actually Be Different?
I’ve never believed that change should be reserved for special days, but the New Year tends to carry a sense of promise. It often brings a surge of clarity, motivation, and hope that maybe things really could be different.
And then, as January moves along, that initial energy fades.
Responsibilities pile up. Our bandwidth shrinks. And before we know it, we’re pulled back into the familiar current of obligations, far from the shore we were hoping to reach.
It’s not that we lack willpower or discipline. Most of us are already trying hard. What we often need instead is the …
The Truth About Healing I Didn’t Learn in Med School
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” ~Rumi
I’ve spent most of my adult life helping people heal.
I’m a podiatrist, a foot and ankle surgeon, and I’ve seen pain in many forms. Torn ligaments. Crushed bones. Wounds that just won’t close. But if I’m being honest, the deepest wounds I’ve encountered weren’t the ones I treated in my clinic. They were the invisible ones, the ones that patients carried silently, and the ones I had unknowingly been carrying myself.
I used to think healing was straightforward. Diagnose. Treat. Follow up. Recover.
That made sense to me. …
Which Discomfort Do You Want to Live With?
From this day in the 2026 daily calendar, available here!
Why I’m Listening to My Aging Mother More Deeply Now
“When an old person dies, a library burns to the ground.” ~African Proverb
For most of my life, I thought aging was about bodies slowing down—hair turning white, memory fading, steps getting shorter. But caring for my ninety-six-year-old mother has changed that. I now see something deeper and more painful: the slow erasure of wisdom in a culture that prizes the new, dismisses the old, and moves too fast to notice what it’s losing.
We live in a world that idolizes youth and innovation—new tech, new trends, new ideas. “Old” has become shorthand for “outdated.” When wisdom becomes invisible, we …
Break the Cycle: How to Heal the Patterns You Didn’t Choose
“We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” ~Native American Proverb
For years, I blamed my parents for my anxiety, my defensiveness, and my need to be right. Then I learned they inherited the same patterns from their parents. And theirs before them.
This wasn’t about blame. It was about breaking a cycle nobody chose.
The Stutter That Taught Me Everything
As a teenager, I developed a stutter. Not just occasional hesitation—paralyzing anxiety about speaking.
I’d anticipate making mistakes when reading aloud. Starting conversations felt like walking through a minefield. The fear of stuttering …
Grieving the Parents You Needed but Never Had
“We can’t receive from others what they were never taught to give.” ~Unknown
When I was younger, I believed that love meant being understood. I thought my parents would be there for me, emotionally and mentally. But love, I’ve learned, isn’t always expressed in the ways we need, and not everyone has the tools to give what they never received.
As an adult, I’ve learned something both liberating and heartbreaking: Parents can only give what they have.
I used to get frustrated that my parents couldn’t really understand my mental health struggles. The realization didn’t hit me suddenly. It …
Though I run this site, it is not mine. It's ours. It's not about me. It's about us. Your stories and your wisdom are just as meaningful as mine. 