• love
    family,  love

    Six Signs that You Love with Intention

    I am always amused by titles like this one until I dive into the topic. Learning to love well takes a lifetime of dedication to the art. Most posts on the topic of love have a long to-do list. And while I agree that love does indeed manifest as action, those lists don’t prove generally helpful to me. After all, my husband and each of my children are so different that what looks like love to one feels unloving to another. Neither am I here to recount the five love languages, as helpful as they can be. I think that to love well, basic guidelines read more like emotional maturity…

  • sensitive
    Featured

    In Defense of Sensitive and How to Tell If You Are

    I was a sensitive child. Fabric that was even slightly itchy was a misery to me. My husband will tell you that I hate overhead lights. I have too many table lights because I want light. I just don’t want it overhead. Florescent lights cause me to flee to the shadows. Some people love having the noise on the television. It is like white noise to them. As for me, I much prefer silence. I love music, but everything on my iTunes is pretty mellow. Gosh, I sound boring. And I hate violent shows, horror movies in particular. The images get caught in my mind. Art museums move me deeply.…

  • body
    Body

    Body Memory: Relearning Safe and Happy

    That our body can retain memory is probably no surprise to most women. We look at our grown children and remember the sweet weight of their infant bodies in our arms and how soft their little cheeks were to kiss.  Thanksgiving is upon us and our mouths water remembering familiar holiday dishes or when the fragrance of pumpkin pie fills the house. The highway between smell and memory is a short one. But the tendency to store memories in our body can work against us, causing anxiety or dread to pop up in unexpected and inconvenient places. For me, to be in the presence of anger caused my body to…