relationships
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Love and struggle
“Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It’s an active noun, like ‘struggle.'”~Fred Rogers All relationships evolve, change, and reshape themselves. In the early stages, we tend to idealize a new romantic partner as well as our new friends. But eventually we learn that no one can meet our expectations all of the time. The longer we know a person — and the more we grow — the more likely we’ll encounter conflicts and disappointments. Sometimes we’re called to face a crisis together. And sometimes we need extra support to handle a problem of our own. Fragile relationships won’t withstand the challenge — but the durable ones will. As Fred…
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More than words
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~Maya Angelou It’s not just what we say that matters — but how we say it. While preparing for an essay workshop, I ran across some notes I’d made about the importance of “voice and tone” in our writing. Since most personal essays are conversational, our job as writers is to draw readers into the heart and soul of our stories. We want others to relate to our experiences. The same is true when we’re talking with someone. Our tone of voice carries our intention, and everything we…
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Funny Friday: “Whatever it takes”
“Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone in order to do that.” ~Anonymous quote found on Pinterest We can agree to disagree — and sometimes that works well enough. But sometimes disagreements escalate to the point of no return. When keeping the peace means sacrificing your own integrity and inner peace, well, the best thing you can do is step away and respectfully give the other person extra space. Lots of extra space. ~CL
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Glittering magical moments
“Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves how to make room for them, to love them, and to live, really live.” ~Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life When we list the highlights summer, we might focus on the major milestones of the season — weddings, graduation parties, school reunions, or family vacations. Likewise, when we chronicle our whole lives in retrospect, we tend to list…
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There’s a word for it
“When we love someone, we share things with words. We share poems. We share songs. We share our favorite books. Because if we can make enough language bridges between the two of us, our hearts and minds will begin to know each other better.” ~Martha Beck Cleaning out my desk recently, I ran across several folders stuffed with old greeting cards, notes, and letters from friends and family. There were Mother’s Day tributes from my son; letters of comfort sent after my mother died; anniversary cards and valentines from my husband; thank-you notes from old and new friends. Another file contained encouraging letters from readers of my early newspaper columns.…
