Blog Posts

This year has been the mother of all time warps. A mashup of Groundhog Day and Back to the Future. Each of the days spent visiting my mother in rehab or languishing on the couch with a fractured spine lasted at least a week. And yet wasn’t it just yesterday that a shiny new year was starting? A year that held so much promise? Not gonna lie. For me, this year has been one of the most difficult in a while and I’ll be happy to get some distance from it. We’re already back to the

In my previous life, I was the embodiment of the people-pleasing, overachieving, good girl. I obeyed, I conformed, and I sacrificed any...

I woke up on a recent Sunday morning in a local hotel, where I’d decamped to give the CWP  and her visiting friends the run of the house...

“My poor mother, who was both a terrorist and a child.” Anne Lamott This perfect gem, from one of my favorite authors, so beautifully...

It’s been about two months since my withdrawal to work on some radical self-care and a major attitude adjustment. Apparently, my Spidey...

What happens when your incurable optimism results in profound disappointment? When your Herculean efforts to remain patient and positive...

In a typical mid-century Italian American family, introspection was not a thing. Why would you think, let alone talk, about feelings?...

[Instead of divulging all the gory details, I’ll just say that the last ten days or so have been one of those periodic mid-terms that the...

An examination of my journals over the last decade (something I’m not brave, or masochistic, enough to do) would reveal that easily one...

It’s that time again. Discussing anything related to clinical narcissism and narcissistic abuse can make me feel dangerously exposed (not...

No doubt I still have a way to go, but I’m taking a minute to marvel at the distance I’ve traveled emotionally over the past several...

[Please note: There will be no post next week (April 25th) as I’ll be on a long anticipated trip. It’s my intention to resume posting May...

[I’m stunned, and a little proud of myself, to realize that, for once in my life, I was slightly ahead of the zeitgeist. Suddenly,...

Growing up in my sixties was a full-time job. There was an intense early period in which the insights came so fast and furiously that I...

Somewhere in my sixties, I started experiencing occasional surprise and befuddlement in conversation with some of my women friends....

I climbed into bed with a half-smile and my heart singing. This was such a good day. As I mentally compiled my gratitude list, it became...

I’ve written before about the four-legged lunatic that has free reign of our house. He continues to provide daily doses of both hilarity...

I recently read On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good”, by Elise Loehnen. It’s a highly...

[This week has been a pivot extravaganza. The standouts among a series of unanticipated events have been a microwave fire that narrowly...

Until quite recently, I imagined that my convoluted, protracted path towards healing was unique. Surely I was the only one who was so...