If you’re lucky enough to meet a Girl Dad, he’s going to treat you based on how he wants his little girl treated. He will be more feminist than misogynist. He’s going to want you to be strong and independent. He’ll be happy about stepping in as protector.
Read moreRelearning love
Time to transition into that beautiful butterfly.
My goal is to continue growing, learning and evolving. It’s time to enter that chrysalis and transform. It’s not an immediate change but a process that has been altered with each interaction.
Read moreThe Joy of a Good Breakup
Love is an act of faith. No matter how I’ve been hurt by it before, I know that it’s transformative and healing. I know there’s more good than bad. I’ll jump in again, and just when I’m starting to drown and be taken under, I may get rejected again. But it’s worth it. Every experience has been good enough to risk the bad. I’ve grown because of the many ways I took a chance on love.
Read moreCalibrating Healthy Relationships After Emotional Abuse
I had to learn how to be treated with kindness. I am lucky enough to work with gentlemen. Their natural behavior is kindness, compassion, and empathy. When they extended politeness toward me, I had to learn to accept it. I had to learn how to accept an offer for a drink. I had to learn how it feels to be listened to and valued. My opinions matter at work in a way that I had never experienced at home.
And now I have to learn normal dating patterns in a healthy relationship because what I know has always become emotionally abusive.
Read moreOpening up to Vulnerability
Support doesn’t always look like being bailed out. It can be a listening ear. It can be an embrace that holds you together. It can be unwavering eye contact. There’s so much in being seen as you are, without the weight of how you should be, or what is expected of you.
Read moreHow Working on Your Golf Swing Can Ease Stress
When I hit that sweet spot, there’s the whistle of wind from my wood or iron. I can hear the swoosh of air as I’m accelerating back toward my ball. There’s so much beauty in the sound of hitting a ball. There’s a soft pop. That pop is a perfect hit, and with the right club, my ball lifts up before soaring far.
Read moreMirrors, Intimacy, Connection
Look at how you react to others to determine what makes you uncomfortable about yourself.
This post is about intimacy. Into me see. And when your eyes are open, what a miraculous reflection to behold.
Read moreHow I Wrote and Self Published my Book with Steps so that YOU CAN TOO
Publishers want you to publish. They make it easy. My taxes might be harder than following the step by step instructions that are easily available online and through video tutorials.
Read moreThe Top 7 Great Exercises to Help You Sleep at Night
7 Terrific Tips to Help You Sleep at Night
A guest blog post by Sara Bailey of TheWidow.net
Read moreLighting a Candle or Two in Remembrance
I’m one in four women that would suffer this kind of loss. I’m lending my voice for the mothers and fathers that couldn’t. For the parents that couldn’t find the words or weren’t given the space to share their pain, I stand. I rise. I’m making that space for us.
Read moreAdulting 101 and Stress Relief
You are not your job, your home, your income, or relationships. You are where you find your compassion and empathy. It’s where you find your hope and solidify your resilience. You are evolutionary success. You are a bloodline and heritage that has survived the good and bad of your family history. You are more than what you do. You are more than who you know. You are everything that matters.
Read moreGlass Ceilings, Mirrors and Stories
You will feel the weight of rejection based on how much you valued the acceptance that you never needed in the first place. You are enough. Just be.
Read moreDream Interpretation
The dream was telling me I had healed. In the darkness I didn't realize the boxes were being unpacked. I didn't know when the shackles fell free.
Read moreFor the Warrior Dragon Slayer, Betrayed in Love
You have a heart filled with empathy and compassion because knowing the heart of others keeps you safe when dancing on the eggshells of their rough day.
Read moreSimmering
Art allows us to process things we rarely give voice to. It draws out emotions we are often too carefully shielding from the world to express or release. It's a performance that echoes what you remember. It's a song that winds melodies around our hearts, stealing any superficial healing. It's a painting that arrests your senses and calls on a memory that faded with the sun after a fitful night of ephemeral visions. It's the winding of metals around precious stones to adorn the bodies of those we love. It's the careful placement of stones and the manipulation of water and flora that invites fauna in a garden.
Read moreWhat's in a Name? Everything
It's likely my last name will die out with my generation. My Dad had daughters and we gave our sons the names of their fathers . . . I wanted to keep it and I couldn't because I made his wants more important than mine.
Read moreDust Settles on a Marriage
I felt gratitude for my ex husband choosing to leave me. If not for his choice, I would not have the life I have now. My kids in the car were happy, as far as teenagers are willing to express such happiness. I had this overwhelming hope that their father was as happy about our marriage ending as I am. It was a genuine moment of gratitude toward him and a moment where I hoped he had the same joy and optimism toward a new future that I do.
Read moreWalking Tall
The woman that taught me that identity is in how we walk. It’s also in how we talk, breathe and exist.
"Do you know who you are? Your bloodline is stronger than that backbone right now. Sit up straight. You need to walk tall like the history of the women in our lives made sacrifices and fought hard so you could live the life you have."
Read moreFiction - Crying as a Family
Our reality is so much more painful when all of your human emotions are amplified by the ghosts that pass that knowledge through you. You thought that conversation about starting your period was hard enough, wait until you can tell Uncle Niall things his doctor doesn't know.
Read moreNaughty Fiction, continued
Part 2 of a Succubus story. It’s not fun if you can’t share what you got.
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