Remember Oprah Winfrey’s amazing acceptance speech at the Golden Globes Award Show this year? It was a call-to-action for girls and women to continue the fight for equal justice. It’s thrilling to see that sexual harassment, something I took for granted when I was young, is in the light and that things are changing. I
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“I share being bipolar because it is an act of love.” This just came out of my mouth last night while I was talking to a friend of my husband. She was telling me about her daughter’s struggles without sharing intimate details, so I told her I was bipolar. This usually makes people more comfortable
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Christmas is filled with promise, and it’s perfect in our imaginations. Twinkling trees, sweet treats, and reading Christmas stories with your children by the fire. The idea that Santa Claus and his elves think of nothing other than making the gifts of your dreams. To boot, he delivers them flying through the night sky, fueled
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I met an angel on a sidewalk. It’s an indelible memory that I return to more than others. Each time I think about her, I feel the human experience in its ideal form. Let me tell you why. Some of us lick the edges of life. Others go at it like a dog with a
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If there is one place to be courageous, it’s with your family. Courage counts most when love is at stake. The women of Thistle Farms are the best example of courage and healing I can think of because they are a family of lions who’ve overcome life on the streets. I wrote a story about
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Bren McClain, the author of One Good Mama Bone, came to my book club last night. She’s the new rock star of Southern prose as far as I’m concerned. Just like a teenage groupie, I went wild with the news that she was coming to our book club. I texted my children, friends, and relatives with double exclamation
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I’m 57 and getting closer to being a grownup. I’ve been in middle school in my mind as long as I can remember. My father’s recent death and navigating my fifties are helping me mature. In this decade, much like adolescence, things change a lot. Your body and mind morph in ways that are hard
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I thought I was a merciful person and a good forgiver, but I’m not. There are people in my family that I’m not truly forgiving because I have a weak mercy muscle. I use it selectively when it should be a reflex. If you’ve got a good mercy muscle, you forgive people with empathy, compassion
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There’s an example of all that is good buzzing at the end of our block. It’s a home being re-built. My friend Judith lost half her house from the wind. It was the only victim of Hurricane Irma in our neighborhood. Her oak tree, with hundreds of rings, gave in to one of the last
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Yesterday, the last breath of Hurricane Irma slapped branches and bent tree trunks toward our home. Now the air is still. It feels like the moment when you run out of things to say to God. I’m looking for the signs. The news cycle is already spinning away from the weather and back to Washington,
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