We Need to Stop Telling Men They Get a Free Pass for FINALLY Showing Up After Years of Casual Neglect and Abandonment — When my son was around six and my daughter around eight, I took my first “professional” weekend away from home to attend a screenwriting seminar in Las Vegas. As I unpacked my suitcase, I thought I’d check in with my kids. …

External adventures can’t compare to internal journeys — When you zoom in really close with your camera (as I did above), an object loses its form and borders (in this case, a blanket) and becomes art or a shapeless object of fascination. I never realized we were surrounded by dynamic molecules that breathe, move, and dance around us…

How do you find pleasure in simple things after loss? — I stopped walking after my sister died. I don’t mean that I lost the ability to walk. I mean that I lost pleasure in the act of walking. Three years earlier, after my marriage of 25 years suddenly imploded, I started walking daily, usually at sunset with my dog, as…

Raising Awareness Begins with Sharing Our Stories — Note: This blog post was originally written in October or 2015 to raise awareness about invisible illnesses by spreading information. Miraculously, after six long years of fighting for my health, I entered remission from chronic illness in the spring of 2019. Despite some minor setbacks (Long-COVID entered my life in…

A Meditation in Grief — In the weeks since my sister unexpectedly passed away, I’ve wondered if maybe grief is not just a state of mind but also a parallel universe. There is life in this other universe, but it is very silent and still. STILL LIFE. I feel as if I’m both present and…

Ten Years Ago, Hurricane Sandy Hit, and My Health Was Undone by a Perfect Storm of Unrelenting Conditions — Ten years ago, I was sitting on a beach on Palm Island, celebrating my 45th Birthday with just my husband. We had purposely chosen an island in the Grenadines to avoid potential hurricanes, and the weather was perfect. It was also the first time my husband and I had flown…

Blonde is an ugly movie that aims for art as it debases Marilyn Monroe and strips her of dignity and her voice. — Dear Male Directors, Female trauma is not art. Rape. Abortion. Miscarriage. Pregnancy. Menstruation. Domestic Violence. Non-consensual Sex. Child Abuse. Incest. These are not metaphors or allegories. Or beautifully rendered hallucinations or fantasies. Violence against women and hatred of their bodies leave festering wounds that haunt women who are otherwise brilliant…

Like the Zen practitioner, a writer's life is one of practicing, observing, noticing, creating, and serving. — In the summer of 2018, while trying to heal from a debilitating long-term illness, I spent a week at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, studying Narrative Healing. Chronic Lyme disease had disrupted my productive, busy life and sent me reeling into an abyss of despair…

Americans are fed a daily diet of disaster, tragedy, and scandal. As a parent, I simply do not have the stomach for it. — Note: This essay was originally published in The Freedom Chronicles and was written in the months following September 11, 2001, when every parent seemed to be afraid of everything. The news only seemed to be making things much worse. …