I wanted to watch Verity, a movie about a writer starring Anna Hathaway, but didn’t. Because it seemed too scary. I specifically avoid scary movies since I believe movies reprogram our minds and nervous systems, so why would I make my nervous system more scared than it already is by real life? But Verity is…

When you grow up conditionally loved (If you get good grades, we will love you. If you help wash the dishes, we will love you more. If you marry someone from another religion, we will disown you), you have an adult fantasy. The shape of the fantasy is the same no matter the varying conditions…

One guy I dated has a common name like mine. Actually, his exact name is not that common, but there are lots of derivatives of it. So, I see these derivatives everywhere: in books, in movies, on storefront signs, and on social media. Some months I see the derivatives frequently. Correction: I notice the derivatives…

One of my clients, a powerful, creative, beautiful, empathetic, and accomplished woman in her 40s, recently told me that she would never ever give her power away to a man. I agreed, because in my 40s, I would never again do that either. As a coach, my job is also to help each client find…

There was a time when I used to cut my fingers a lot. I traveled to Mongolia for work assignments and cut my finger while chopping vegetables and opening tuna cans. My co-workers helped me put coffee on the wound until it stopped bleeding. It took so long to stop that I thought I had…

We all come with the capacity to produce shadows. In coaching, we often say that every strength, when overused, becomes a shadow. Or I’d ask a client, how might you be leaning too much into empathy here? A shadow needs three things: a source of light like the sun, something to block the light like…

Death is the ultimate grief. Or is it? Is it really worse than losing someone who is still alive but refuses to be in your life? *** A few years back, I used to take a walk in a cemetery once a quarter. Always during the day because I’m a scaredy-cat, as one of my…

My father, my brother, and I have all woken up by cramps in the middle of the night. This is the gene of not drinking enough water or retaining minerals, I guess. It’s usually in my feet or calves, calves making me the most helpless. The men in my house are sportsmen: my dad is…

We all have a messy corner in our homes. The corner that collects all the mess, the jest, and the rest. For some, it’s the kitchen counter or a stool by the door. For others, it’s the bedside table or the coffee table. For me, I have a few of these corners, including a ten-by-ten…

In July 2026, a mound of black snow in North York, Ontario, resists heatwaves to maintain the status quo from the big snowstorm of December 2025. Although I used to live in the area, I haven’t seen this miracle. I just read about it on Instagram. It nurtures debris from months past and refuses to…