Posts

Sometimes when we share the innermost parts of ourselves we leave the encounter feeling like we’ve been stripped bare, sometimes even flayed on the altar of vulnerability. It can even feel like a hangover – like you can’t face the world and your whole self is now too tender to even try.  Brené Brown –…

When I was first diagnosed with anxiety and depression I was in my mid-20s and I didn’t know anyone else who experienced mental health issues. I felt misunderstood and incredibly alone. A year or so later a friend had a few panic attacks and – while I hated that she was going through this –…

When it comes to friendship, there’s some kind of unspoken fear that we have to have it all together or our friends won’t want to be our friends anymore. Do you find yourself worrying that if your friends could see your *insert weakness, fault, or fear here* they’d go running? What if friendship was less…

I had an interesting conversation about friendship years ago. We had just moved to a new duty station and I was concerned that my husband wasn’t putting in any effort to find new friends. He looked at me, confused, “I already have friends.”  “But you don’t have friends, here.” He was someone who only needed…

My family moved to a new town a couple nights before starting high school. I knew no one and spent the majority of my 9th grade year eating lunch alone. I’ve never been someone that’s been able to make myself fit in so it was really challenging to find the people I vibed with. No…

I was a very litigious adolescent. I mean, I wasn’t literally bringing court cases as a 12 year old, but I saw injustice everywhere. This happened to be in the late 90s and early 00s when “hypocrisy” was a regular topic of conversation and “hypocrite” a label to be avoided. The buzzword was used to…

Last week I wrote about integrity and I felt like I left something out: being a person of integrity isn’t just about what you do. It’s also about what you don’t do.  I’ve had a few conversations lately with people who feel like their friends only show up when they need something. They’re dissatisfied with…

Have you ever worried what would happen if you had to be honest about your imperfections? Do you feel like life is sometimes a Jenga tower, balanced on some of your strengths with each weakness only precariously holding up the blocks above them? Do you acknowledge your weaknesses or do you prefer to pretend like…

How do you get anything done if everything has to get done?I mean, I love a good list. I’m great at organizing my thoughts. I’m even getting really good at delegating.But where do you start when your to do list is longer than Santa’s? Someone once told me you can only reasonably expect yourself to…

I distinctly remember sitting in counseling one day, frustrated with myself. I’d only been a solo parent for a few years and was struggling to juggle the responsibilities that come with parenting, keeping home functional and people fed, and giving myself and kids the time and space to process everything we’d just experienced. In the…