One of the last things she said to me was, “This is so hard.” What is so hard?, I had wanted to ask. Is it the pain? Is it saying goodbye? Is it leaving your daughters and knowing you won’t watch your grandchildren grow up? Is it surrendering to the invisible after fighting for so […]
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“Is this weird?” Our eyes met and we burst out laughing. The windshield wipers squeaked in response, as if to drive home the point that this was, indeed, very weird. It was Easter Sunday. My husband, Eric, and I had been in the backseat of an Uber for the past 45 minutes. Our suitcases were […]
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For years now I’ve lived life as an exercise of “How can I find shama in this situation?†Well I have one personality trait that has posed a humongous hurdle to finding inner-peace—my fierce need to be liked. That’s right, I want people to like me, and in the past when they didn’t, I found […]
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One thing I’ve learned over the past five years with my Seeking Shama journey is that the absolute best way to kick start the flow of my life and keep things fresh is to step outside of the box. When I start to feel blue, it’s usually because I’m stuck in a rut and have let […]
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 “V,†a lovely former co-worker whom I worked with for over a decade, recently sent me a private message on Facebook. Both of us have since moved on from our previously employer. In V’s case, she saw an opportunity and embraced change by quitting her job for a better one. In my case, I was […]
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Everybody hurts. Everybody has had moments of deep despair. The trick to breathing through the inevitable emotions that go hand-in-hand with being a human being is to remember that just as the sun sets each night, it always will rise again tomorrow. I have a friend named Cendra Hicks. Cendra is 47 years old, has cerebral […]
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My twenty-year friendship with Holly began with a Post-it Note. I had recently started my first post-law school job in Madison, Wisconsin, and Holly was a co-worker. I was struggling with my new boss’s demands, and my lack of experience left me without the courage to voice my frustrations with the situation. I must have […]
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The mailman really was my Santa Clause, as I surprisingly waxed prophetic in a recent blog post. It all started in mid-December when my landlady sent me an e-mail to tell me that she and her daughter were going to move into the sweet, magical, healing little blue house that I have rented from her […]
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 A year ago last December, during one of those inevitable vulnerable spells that periodically bubble up when one is attempting to reinvent oneself, I found myself emotionally gushing to a friend, “I need to drum up some Christmas magic. Where is the Christmas magic?!†After allowing myself a brief moment to […]
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When will this headache end? This was the main thought running through my head for the past four days. It felt like someone dipped a corkscrew in fiery coals so that the metal screw was blazing red hot, then they repeatedly jammed that corkscrew into my forehead right above my left eyebrow. Next, they slowly […]
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