The Real Wealth
How I Rebuilt My Life After Devastating Loss
On August 22, 2018, my husband collapsed in our bedroom.
Rudy was my best friend and my partner in every sense of the word. His last word was “911.”
I performed CPR while my youngest daughter and my father-in-law stood nearby, and my oldest daughter shielded our four-year-old in another room. The EMTs worked on him before taking him to the hospital, and my father-in-law and I followed the ambulance.
After what felt like forever, a nurse moved us into a small waiting room at the back of the ER. There was no urgency in the building. It was eerily …
When You’re Doing Everything Right but Still Feel Lonely
“We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.” ~Albert Schweitzer
I pick up my phone even though it has not made a sound.
No missed calls. No new messages. No invitation asking what I am doing or whether I would like to come over. I put it down, but before long I check again.
Still no one.
The only other heartbeat in the house belongs to Oliver, my five-pound chihuahua. He brings me more joy than something so small should be able to carry. I talk to him constantly, and he listens with great interest …
5 Harmful Habits That Make a Stressful Day Even Worse
When I was little, I often felt as though I lived in two completely different worlds.
My parents’ home was like an ice castle. Everything looked beautiful. Everything was orderly. Everything appeared exactly as it was supposed to. But it was cold.
My mother rarely let me do what I genuinely wanted to do. Instead, I was expected to only do what had to be done.
Many evenings I went to bed exhausted, frustrated, or quietly holding back tears.
Whenever I complained, my mother would simply say, “You have to endure it. That’s how everyone lives.”
Then there was my …
I Used to Think Being Easy to Get Along with Was a Compliment
“Being easy to please is often mistaken for having no needs at all.” ~Unknown
We’d been together four years when my husband turned to me in the car and asked, completely out of nowhere, “What’s your favorite color?”
I laughed, assuming he was joking. He wasn’t.
“I’m serious,” he said. “I realized I don’t actually know. I know mine’s blue. I don’t know yours.”
I opened my mouth to answer, and nothing came out. Not because I didn’t have a favorite color. Because I genuinely couldn’t remember the last time anyone had asked me a question like that, and my …
How My Father’s Cruel Words Shaped My Life for 45 Years
“Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” ~Toni Morrison, Beloved
My father was on the other side of my bedroom door, banging hard on it with the flat of his hand, screaming at me to get back to the table and finish my plate.
I told him there was no way I was going anywhere near my sister after she’d just hit me.
That’s when he said the thing that gutted me.
“Well, you know, I used to give your mother a good swift kick in the ass when she deserved it. You act like that, and you get …
