“Mom, are you being nice or are you being mean? I’m trying to be nice, so you need to try too.”— A precocious little girl in a viral moment of emotional wisdom We often say that children live in the space between their parents—not just physically, but emotionally....
A March 30th Washington Post article by Yael Schonbrun, "Typecasting others and self as villain or victim can hurt relationships," explores how we often fall into moral typecasting in relationships—assigning rigid roles of villain and victim in couples' dynamics. When...
Do you know how to apologize meaningfully when you have made a mistake or hurt someone — intentionally or unintentionally? Most of us growing up did not see good models of healthy apologies to repair ruptures and restore relational trust and safety. Some of us were...
Just this week, for the first time I watched a popular online video, This Is Water, adapted from author David Foster Wallace’s 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College. Maybe you have seen it here. I was struck by how brilliantly the video conveyed a message about...
If you are preparing to be married, consider premarital counseling: it’s the best investment in your relationship you’ll ever make. You don’t have to be religious to try it. Even though some couples come to premarital counseling because their priest, minister, or...
Growing up, I thought that I could only experience the spiritual in religious places like churches or in solemnly recited words of prayer (and only when I was perfectly well-behaved). Once I became a parent, however, my four children taught me that the sacred can...
I love the following reflection from Richard Rohr, a wise Franciscan priest, who founded the Center for Action and Contemplation. The vivid metaphor of the loyal soldier resonates deeply with my experience personally and professionally. The ways we learn to protect...