Despite all the healing work I’ve done on myself, a sense of inferiority clings to me and sometimes gets in the way. It is part of the legacy of toxic shame I have not completely shed, not to mention all the cultural messages we get about what it means to be successful. You see, I […]
Healing
A Glimpse into Foreign Worlds
I love podcasts. On some days, I find time to listen to them on my iPad while eating breakfast, working in the kitchen, riding my stationary bike, brushing my teeth, getting dressed for the day or undressed for bed. They expose me to the most interesting people and enrich my thinking and my life. Recently, […]
Reflections on Sex and Power in the Age of #MeToo
After my initial shock and disgust, I reflected upon and wrestled with these questions as continuing revelations of sexual misconduct by powerful and influential men made the headlines: How might our relationships be different if sex was revered as sacred? …if the body of our partner was cherished and treated with reverence? …if the raw […]
Angels Among Us ~~ Shirley
We never know when we make a small gesture how it can change a person’s life. Shirley Santo smiled at me from the choir loft at church. She couldn’t have known that her smile meant the world to me. I was almost eight years old and painfully shy. For three years I had been holding […]
Another Welcome Gift of Grace
In my last blog post, I wrote: “For many years as an adult, I hid. I cut myself off from old friends who would have wanted to know what was going on. I didn’t want to tell them.” When our family moved from Middletown to Kettering, OH in the early 80s, we left behind a […]
Unexpected and Continuing Gifts of Grace
People often ask memoirists why we write the story of our life. Writing is for me a spiritual practice — an exploration of the deepest terrain of my soul. I felt compelled to write my story. In the beginning stages, I couldn’t have told you why. In my studies on the art of writing memoir, I […]
