Some Words You Can't Take Back! There I was. My heart beating fast into the silence that followed. The couple I’m with are both stunned. One of them said something that can’t be taken back. The words are still hanging in the air. We feel their heaviness. There is shock, pain, and regret all combined into a tornado that has swallowed us. I want to say many things. Words ready to spill out of my mouth. I want to say: “This is f&^&ed up!” I let myself breathe, expand my lungs, a

I was expecting many likes from last week’s article. Instead, I got a multitude of questions – in private messages, rather than in comments on my Substack or other social media – about feelings. How to recognize anger and sadness? How to differentiate between the two? And somewhere, between answering them, I realized that we aren’t really taught to pay attention to our feelings. I mean, we all know what feelings are. In theory. But do we really know them? We all experience

The yellowjacket travels lazily along the half-eaten rib. I’m surprised to see it this late in the evening. The sun has already set. Our party is over. A goodbye kiss from the last guest has already evaporated off my cheek. Alexa plays the music as if everyone is still here. The chill in the air makes me shudder, but I’m not ready to leave the deck. Inside the house, I hear running water as my husband begins to clean. I pull the hoodie close across my chest, against the rolli

It is a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon. Above the city, on a hill, hovers a bright pink triangle presiding over all of us. It can be seen from all the freeways that crisscross the concrete and hilly landscape that I call home. I am making my way to a local bar to meet my husband for a cocktail. I am almost there as I get swept up by a sea of red and laughter. It is both heartwarming and disorienting. I feel like Alice Through The Looking Glass! It takes me almost half a minut

I am writing this on Summer Solstice in Northern Hemisphere. A time when so many of us are scheduling our annual vacations. In a busy world full of deliverables, career demands, endless chores, we cherish our hard-earned two weeks off. We have booked a trip to another continent or maybe a cruise months ago. We have agonized over picking the right hotel, restaurants, activities and excursions to maximize every second of our vacation. To ensure that our two weeks off are a tr