Children Learn What They Live
If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn. If children live with hostility, they learn to fight. If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive. If children…
Count Your Blessings
Count your blessings if you find any peace and joy at all from being with family, ever. Because for those of us who do not, it is very painful. Holidays illuminate this…
Paper Plates–The Cheap Kind
Today is moving day and my best friend of 40 years helped me pack but is physically unable to be here now. And Sweet Greg who also joined and calmed…
Every Chapter Matters
To ask a person to selectively numb feelings or deny experiences is an unreasonable request. And yet, it is the demand of nearly 50 years---as if time changes anything other…
Trojan Horses
So, when I visited NC 9 years ago for therapy session with mother and sister which went poorly and in which I miscarried, I, for obvious reasons, felt unable to rally for Trick or Treat neighborhood parade with my sister and her family. I required time and space to rest and grieve the tragedy of that session, my family, and the loss of a pregnancy–while nursing and caring for my baby. (more…)
So This
Rather than entering into a difficult conversation, some people will try to silence you when they feel threatened by having to look at something that shakes their sense of power…
Truth to Bullshit
Highly relevant and illuminating passage from Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown and brilliant supporting meme made with ♥ by yours truly : THE PROLIFERATION OF BULLSHIT Someone who lies…
Narcissist Be Like
My sons and I ♥luuuuv us some Pink Panther. It never stops being hysterically funny. We literally roar and do that thing where we punch each other’s arms for every ridiculous thing and then we rewind and replay certain parts repeatedly. Pink Panther is clever sneaky and selfish AF and 
somehow seemingly innocent and totally lovable. Our favorite episode is Blue Print. Anyway, I created this meme because it is a perfect metaphor for my attempt at a clear and direct boundary with my FOO– ME building a door (NOT a wall) out of necessity and having it removed, via my sister’s triangulation with my ex. My stipulation for spending time together was that we address serious issues, not only for ourselves, but to spare my young children from the decades worth of white knuckle tension and eggshells.
The culture in which righteously voicing sentiments of judgment, shaming, weird 
gifting, and awkward flattering, with laser focused dedication to squashing opportunities for atoning or amending– is not what I choose to have modeled for them. In relocating to this side of the country, I knew and accepted the risk,mother was sick and having grandsons and daughter close by to help and to be present for a fight for life seemed spiritually right. So, I was either a courageous and faithful badass or a serious dumbass. (more…)
The Loss of an Estranged Parent
Shit shit shit...I just got third party information that my mother has been taken to the hospital. My mother has made her decision and choices clear. So, I suppose I…