Month: November 2023

November 2023

Hard Holidays

November 30, 2023 / Doing Divorce

It was so much harder than I expected. I had successfully navigated the Christmas holidays all seven years prior as a divorced parent with my two young daughters. Now, in my 8th year as a divorced parent, the Christmas season was upon us. Their dad made a request to take the girls away for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I cannot explain my response in any other way than I thought it was the right thing to do. I said yes. Their stepmother’s father had passed earlier in the year. As the first holiday season approached after his passing,

Grateful

November 22, 2023 / Doing Divorce

Light me up a pumpkin spiced candle, let my feet crunch as I walk over brightly colored leaves, and zip me into a parka when the fall wind nips at my nose. I love all that is fall. I love this season, and in particular, this week of Thanksgiving, where with it brings reflections on gratitude and abundance. During times of transition or grief, it may be difficult to feel gratitude or see the silver linings, but perhaps take pause and really look. Why I Am Grateful for my Divorce Did I just write that subtitle? Did it just get

True Thanksgiving

November 17, 2023 / NEXT: An Empowerment Series

You use gratitude like cocaine, she said. Confusion followed the stun of my kind friend’s smack of truth, and shame infused my face as I tried to process her words. When asked how I was doing, I’d developed a habit of reciting my blessings. With my husband on a path to a predicted death, gratitude became my instant inoculation against feelings. I could escape the pain of seeing dreams of growing old together vanishing and the impending morphine pump making its appearance. Looking at the truth hurt. Counting my blessings helped. In the years since, everything from life’s ordinary inevitable

SEASONAL AMNESIA

November 3, 2023 / NEXT: An Empowerment Series

With a blast of cold, I was shocked into a new season. Though the calendar had not yet declared the first day of winter, the sudden chill in my bones left me certain that the warm, sunny days of autumn were past. Just the week before we’d walked aroundin sweaters and sweatshirts. Now we’d need overcoats and hats just to head to the car. Despite a lifetime of four-season living, the instantaneous plummet of temperature seemed a surprise. You’d think I’d have learned by now. After the spring day my spouse walked into the house carrying a diagnosis of certain