I’ve been thinking a lot as we go into the new year about using the challenges of life as an opportunity to be creative, to grow, and learn, and make something even better than was before. Challenges can inspire creativity and options considered that wouldn’t have been otherwise been needed. This thinking started with a …
Experience over memory
I remember reading once that a uncluttered home makes for an uncluttered brain and heart. A person can feel more present and content when there is a peaceful feeling when there isn’t extra “stuff” cluttering one’s space. As an encouragement to get rid of things, the author wrote something like: “Getting rid of your grandmother’s fancy teapot …
Faithful…
Another of our therapists, Gail Shaver, is new to the blog today. Gail works a lot with couples. And a lot of couples come to us in crisis situations because of infidelity. Gail witnesses the anguish and anxiety results from an affair…and helps couples deal with the resultant carnage. Believe me, when you have seen …
April 11
April 11th, 2005 was a Monday. After months of awkward silence, where I was desperate to understand what was happening under my roof, and hearing almost nothing, he asked me to have a conversation with him that evening. It’s odd when your family looks the same, but the foundation has been rocked, is likely crumbling, …
FAQ’s about forgiveness
Seriously, you’re gonna write about forgiveness? You’re gonna make me feel bad for how I angry and upset I am. I already feel bad enough! How dare you! Yeah, I get that. Living in a state of enormous hurt and pain after someone has hurt you, often with anger and resentment, that’s bad enough. But …
FAQ’s about Apologizing
The first of a series on apologies and forgiveness… Even when it is totally obvious that s/he has messed up, my mother/husband/friend/child has huge trouble apologizing. It drives me crazy. Why is it so hard to apologize? Apologizing is hard. Absolutely. Apologizing takes courage, because it puts a person in a vulnerable space to apologize. …
Redemptive Suffering
Sometimes a conference is just a conference. Sometimes, a conference pokes pretty deep. Today–well, I got poked. Deep. I attended the Storyline Conference this week, hosted by Donald Miller. He has written one of my favourite books, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years…something I wrote about several times almost 3 years ago when I …
The Betrayal of Disengagement
If this blog interests you, you might want to grab a copy of my book that includes this idea in one of the chapters. It is the second, enhanced edition of the popular My marriage is almost dead and my husband doesn’t get it. Available in kindle or paperback form on Amazon: Disengagement…the silent, slippery …
Beautiful and Beastly: Thoughts on Social Media – Part 2
Part 1 of this two-part series on the pros and pitfalls of social media highlighted some of the benefits of using various mediums to stay connected to – or in extraordinary cases – begin connecting with people who we hold dear in our lives. And yet social media has some darker sides, too. There was …
Infidelity survivor group–Join us?
The raw, savage pain of betrayal by one’s life partner is something that can hardly be witnessed. Experiencing the pain of knowing that the one who committed his/her life to you was in the arms of another is something that can have a person feeling: like one is going to literally “lose it”/”go crazy” …