Centering in the Midst of Chaos

by Valerie Gillies

“CENTERING: that act which precedes all others on the potter’s wheel. The bringing of the clay into a spinning, unwobbling pivot, which will then be free to take innumerable shapes as potter and clay press against each other. The firm, tender, sensitive pressure which yields as much as it asserts. It is like a handclasp between two living hands, receiving the greeting at the very moment that they give it…” – from “Centering – In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person” by M.C. Richard. […]

Read More

If Only

by Deatra Haimé Anderson

I got my first brand new car in my twenties. It was a silver Volkswagen Jetta with a dark grey interior and automatic sunroof. I was in love, freed, finally, from a completely unreliable and unwieldy Pontiac Grand Am that guzzled gas and was impossible to parallel park. […]

Read More

Balance and Therapeutic Parenting

by Julie Beem

The word I use to keep myself on the most optimal therapeutic parenting tract is: BALANCE. After reading, listening, talking, listening, attending countless workshops for the last 12+ years, I have to say that at the crux of all therapeutic parenting theories (whether you call them old school or new age) is balance. Our kids need high nurture; high structure – both in MEGA doses. And I believe that if you look at any of those “experts” offering therapeutic parenting advise to us that high structure/high nurture is espoused in their approach, but called a variety of things. […]

Read More

Unplugged or Plugged In?

by Andrea Lynn

I used to be very plugged in. Up to date. On top — of world events, popular culture, hot debates, best books. There have been times in my life and in my career when I’ve read seven newspapers a day. Later it became about websites and blogs, subscriber sites, email blasts, piles and piles of content and responses. Hard news and soft. Come Oscar time, I’d have seen every movie. I watched all the best TV shows, followed favorite columnists, and plugged myself into at least a dozen daily personal blogs. The Internet and I came of age at the same time so my career has never been without it, and I’ve spent my entire adult life feeling like isolation is impossible, and enjoying that fact. […]

Read More

Don’t Look A Gift Horse’s Patooti In The Mouth

by Julie Donner Anderson

Women buy more books than men, which might explain why Dr. John Grey’s series of Mars/Venus books are bestsellers.  Most women are clueless in regard to the male of the species, especially their never-ending failure in the romance department.  Women will go to the ends of the earth (or to a bookstore, incognito) in search of the answer to the age-old question:  When it comes to gifts, why is my husband such a klutz? Such a question is never asked aloud, however.  It would make us women appear ungrateful for the smallest gestures our men attempt, but let’s face it:  It’s hard to fake a smile when you get a bowling ball for your birthday. […]

Read More

The Couple’s Weekend Workshop

by Cyma Shapiro

(Or how to stop childhood patterns, find happiness, and restructure the relationship loop)

I love my husband. But, for the past 15 years, we’ve done a dance of wills, and had innumerable power struggles and issues. Despite a handful of therapists, we haven’t gotten it right. In many ways, we’ve just “missed” each other, always going down separate paths. Until this past weekend. […]

Read More

Ode to the C Block

by Joely Johnson Mork

When Cyma asked me what my angle on older motherhood would be for this blog, I told her that I am a professional freelance health writer and also a certified yoga instructor. Meh, meh. But her ears really pricked up when I mentioned that my husband is more than a bit younger than I am. When I explained that my husband is 29 and I am 43, Cyma immediately replied, “Well, we know who is having sex!” […]

Read More

Grandparents and Midlife Moms

by Andrea Lynn

When I was 26 and my mom was 52, we went backpacking together in France and Italy. We took the train, hitchhiked, stayed in youth hostels – the whole thing. It’s not that I’m abnormally attached to my mom – really. The year before I’d done Europe with my best friend, backpacking, youth hostels, Eurail pass. But every time I’d see something great or funny, I’d be thinking, I wish mom could see this. Because she’d never been overseas, but would have loved everything. […]

Read More

Gratitude is just a nine-letter word

by Cyma Shapiro

For many years in my yoga classes (pre-children), I had trouble finding the ‘gratitude’ that the teachers requested of us, especially during our parting word, “Namaste” (meaning: the light/spirit in me acknowledges the light/spirit in you). While I knew that it was necessary to acknowledge the goodness in my life; the people who had sustained me; the loves I had found; and the joys that I experienced, the truth was that I was always just surviving the day only to run home and find solace and peace in the solitude of my home, alone. The truth was that I was rarely happy. […]

Read More
Go to Top