Terror and hope in New Zealand
“Let’s go check on people,” Dorothy said. I’d just met her the day before. A resident of Biloxi, Mississippi her house was a total loss...
Radical acceptance
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the title of Tara Brach’s book Radical Acceptance. Her focus in that work is mostly on how to...
Full catastrophe living
"Don't try to figure out suffering, Kev, it will drive you crazy," my Dad said to me several months into the illness that would...
Fear is the cheapest room in the house
A member of my extended family is seriously ill. The past few days have been touch and go. She is in her early thirties. I've been...
I'm mentally ill sometimes
After baring his soul to me for most of an hour, a patient cocked his head, screwed up his face, and asked, "Am I crazy?" Usually when...
The Forgotten Vow
“...to honor and love all the days of my life.” Though many couples choose to write their own vows these days, this old language still...
What I do is me
The day my father was buried, an ice storm broke a large branch in a willow in our front yard. Seventeen years later, while home from...
Tolkien on Marriage
Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little...
Your i caught my i
Did you have any interactions at holiday parties recently that left you feeling a bit empty, agitated, or disappointed? As I showed up to...
WD-40 for Relationships
So often when I sit down to meditate, my small self (i) says, “i’m stressed, i need to meditate, i wonder if it will help calm me down.”...
