There are times when our primary relationships, as in those with our mothers, are not as ideal as we might want them to be. The mother relationship can be fraught with loss and yearning or psychic weight and unresolved tension. The heart is left rumpled, hunkered-down and uneasy. Given circumstance, illness, trauma and the like, […]
Today is the fifth anniversary of the shooting in Newtown. It is a day many of us will never forget. Let us take a minute to remember the 20 children and 6 staff members who lost their lives needlessly to the collision of mental health and easy access to weaponry. This piece is for the […]
Being without a mother is special kind of club. Only those that share the experience understand the profound ache for once what was or could have been. Mothers are lost for a myriad of reasons – be it childbirth itself, accident, illness, poverty, circumstances of family, culture, or fate, and the like. Mothers, though physically […]
Zane’s mother looked exhausted. I asked her if all was well. “He won’t go to sleep unless I’m with him, he is taking forever to fall asleep and waking me up several times every night,” she sighed. “It is exhausting.” “How come?” I asked, looking from the preschooler to his mother. “It’s the monsters,” he […]
Over eight days in June, there is the trifecta of Father’s Day, my father’s birthday, and the anniversary of his death (36 years ago this year). If alive, my father would be 101 this year. This particular trio activates memories of a father who graduated a Jesuit college as a philosophy major (and, boy, did […]
Recently, I had the undeniable pleasure of having dinner with a rock star. No acoustic guitar or thumping drums here, this star is Julia Cook, a former teacher and school guidance counselor, who now rocks kids’ worlds. More specifically, she is an award-winning children’s book author, parenting expert, and favored inspirational keynote speaker. Julia takes […]
