I wrote this in 2017, when my youngest was finishing high school — and with graduation season here again, it felt like the right moment to bring it back. Since then I've found the Positive...
How often do you ask yourself, “What would please me?” As someone with a strong Pleaser Saboteur (the inner voice that is constantly telling you that your self-worth is tied to how much...
It’s Mother’s Day morning. With each passing year, I become more aware of how complex and sometimes fraught this holiday is. I am now in the minority of my friends whose mothers are still...
I recently returned from an eight-day trip to Berlin, a city that shaped me when I lived and worked there for a year in the mid-1980s. It was an unusual travel choice for me at this stage...
"We don't usually get to see you stressed, Martha. Interesting!" Ten of us were gathered around the work table in Shona D'Cruz's (Blue Hyacinth Mosaics) home studio for our "Shine Your...
I don’t know if this is just a female thing, but my internal “clean, clear, declutter” lever mysteriously flips on every March. It feels so primordial, especially when I hear my...
“You’re not a Marine. You don’t need to kiss the floor,” Stephanie said. Wait, what? I was struggling to do off-the-knees push-ups in my personal trainer’s studio. Calling Stephanie “my”...
There is something powerful about hearing someone name their own transformation — not in polished marketing language, but in honest reflection about what shifted inside them. Again and...
“Stop taking your lover to the bathroom,” Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra told the crowd. We all burst out laughing, forgetting that we were standing in sub-freezing weather. He was talking...
It’s been three weeks since my husband and I returned from our first visit to Australia. Yes, I have adorable photos of tree-hugging koalas and video of a mother kangaroo and her baby...
It’s Sunday, a week since we returned from our first visit to Australia. A friend texted me a couple of days ago saying, “You must have whiplash leaving sunny Australia to come home to...
The last few days of December always feel like a space between breaths for me. It’s that point where you have just completed your exhale but have not quite turned toward your next inhale....