Sitting on the bed next to Treni, a friend’s 15-year-old, I was struck by the intensity of her anxiety. As we sat there in her pitch-black room, Treni kept one hand over her face as she talked. “What’s up?,” Treni, I asked, “Why are you hanging out in a dark...
“Please remind me… how did we first meet?” I asked Heather, a woman I had become friendly with via social media. Sitting across a cloth-covered table, with the ocean a hundred yards to my left, I expected to hear that we knew each other through social media. Her...
“If someone throws salt at you, and you don’t have any open wounds, it won’t hurt,” a friend shared, after hearing about a situation that was upsetting for me. A few days later, my wife, Yvette, got bit on the thumb by one of our cats while trying to get her into the...
A few weeks ago, I was hanging out in the kitchen with my friend, Kate, and her two children. When I asked her what the best part of her day had been, she said, “My coffee.” It wasn’t the first time Kate referred to coffee as the best part of her day. Concerned, I...
As I sit here, thinking about the peeling back of the calendar, I feel antsy — like there’s something I need to do and quickly, to ensure that I get to the end of the year feeling accomplished. Fear is strong. Can you relate? Here’s what the fears sound like right...
As I stood staring at the water rippling on the shoreline, I felt impatient. I wanted to enjoy pre-game connecting time with the Oyster Cove Cheering Squad (a.k.a. my neighbors), and I wanted to get this plunge over with. Finally, when everyone who was willing to...