a letter to my daughter in birmingham, alabama

Dearest daughter,Guard your uterus in these darkening days. Gather your wits as you go into the belly of the beast. Your lifelong dream of travelling to the South

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anorexia, bulimia, and the starving of saints

There is an idiom about the canary in the coal mine, dating back to when miners brought caged canaries underground with them. If the canary died, signalling toxic

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what’s the difference between borderline and bipolar?

That’s the question that begat this article, but it mushroomed into more than that. You see, to talk about how borderline and bipolar are different, we also need

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standing on the shore of a loved one’s addiction

Not infrequently, I will receive a call from someone who is looking for help with addiction. In these calls I’m thinking about, it’s not the person suffering the

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how to find the right counsellor

When I began my master’s degree in counselling, the first thing that struck me was how genuinely warm and kind my classmates were. In a roomful of people

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curious questions

"There’s no such thing as a stupid question.”Or, as one of my teachers said, “Yes there are, but those are outliers and they don’t count.” The simple truth

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how to say no

When my daughter was little, I posted some affirmations up around her room. On heart-shaped post-it notes were statements like, “I am funny” and “I am kind.” In

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the wonder of wonder

I love the quality of wonder. It evokes curiosity, exploration, and the humility to simply not have all the answers. When we wonder, we ask questions. We open

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slowing anger down

Anger has a fast, hot, destructive quality, and those that struggle with it know all too well the remorse and shame that result when they have let it

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grandmother wisdom

Years ago a healer said to me, “Go home. Nurture your inner grandmother. Put on a bathrobe. Make yourself some tea.” In high school Sister Josephine started her

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