Once upon a time there was a land where the people expected to find love, prosperity, and happiness . . . always. They expected good luck and good fortune and were bitterly disappointed when the unexpected occurred. The problem was…
Dog Gone
Why do they say “man’s best friend?” Surely, women and children are also succeptible to a dog’s unconditional love and bountiful affection. For me, Hickory, a golden retriever, was truly one of my dearest friends and companions for almost 15…
Shortcuts to Inner Peace: A System for Stress Management
Sylvia, my client of several months, sat across from me, clearly agitated. This forty-something woman, mother of two teenage boys, going through a divorce but still living under the same roof with her soon-to-be-ex, crossed her denim clad legs exclaiming,…
Go With The Flow
For our blended family, this has been a week of last minute changes. One moment we were adding a Tuesday night to the kid’s usual schedule and the next we were subtracting a Tuesday and adding a Thursday. Then we…
Mindful Christmas
A friend noticed the brightly wrapped packages under our Christmas tree. “You put the presents out before Christmas?” I responded with “Of course, don’t you?” There seems to be little consensus on the details of how one should celebrate the…
True Love
My husband, Dan, and I just completed a month-long, intensive on-line course called “Renewing Your Relationship” ( www.todoinstitute.org ). It’s so easy to allow one’s relationship to take the back burner to work and kids. Since Dan and I have…
Perfect Timing
I have a property for sale on the seacoast of New Hampshire and it’s supposed to be sold by now . . . at least, according to my own personal time table. We’ve done all the right things: fixed up…
Free Birds
I recently had the pleasure of running into an old friend. We were casually chatting, catching up on life’s adventures, when she mentioned that her youngest son had gone off to college last fall. “Oh,” I surmised, “You’re an empty…
Sleeps Seven
On any given evening, I might have 5 kids, 3 kids, 2 kids, or no kids sleeping in my home. That’s how it is to live in our blended family. Each of these four potential arrangements has such a different…
Wonderful News
Almost three years ago now, I began telling friends and family that I was getting a divorce (and furthermore that I had initiated it). There was a mixture of predictable ‘horror’ responses that fell into one of three categories: tragedy…