black history month

Celebrating and Embracing Diversity

“The Beauty of the world lies in the diversity of its people.” ~Unknown I have a neighbor who has surprised me. On the surface, I assumed she was a lot like me: a white, American woman of similar age with two little boys. Since becoming her friend, however, I have learned a great deal about […]

holiday blues

Handling the Holiday Blues

While there is no perfect cure for the loneliness that accompanies the holidays, it is important to recognize that loneliness is normal, hard, and experienced widely by many during this time of year.  It’s the most wonderful time of the year – the time which, for many of us, means reconnecting with friends and family […]

ABCs of gratitude

November Gratitude: A Ruminators Guide to Being Content in the Now

“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.” —Socrates We all have down days where we feel discouraged, defeated and troubled. Ruminating, however, is when we experience excessive, intrusive, and negative thoughts about experiences and feelings for an extended period of time. For example, a person with a history of trauma may be unable to […]

social media break

Breaking Up With Social Media

“Social media pulls us up into our heads. We’re judging, comparing and daydreaming about what we’re seeing online, so we’re not fully living our own life. Instead, we’re caught up in a virtual world that might not be exactly the way it appears.” ~Jane Pernotto Ehrman, MEd When we open Facebook or Instagram, what do […]

Finding Good News in Hard Times

“No matter how dark it gets, there is always good in the world.” ~ John Krasinski During the last few months, the news has been full of hard, heavy things: Sickness, death, sadness, unemployment, violence, heated political debates, rallies, inequality, food shortages, natural disasters, etc. It is so easy to get caught up in the […]