“The companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain.” ― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley DO YOU REMEMBER your very first best friend? Of course you do. Next to your family, the first close friend you had when you were young […]
OUR RELATIONSHIP TO DEADLINES IS COMPLICATED. From the time we start school — and sometimes even before — we are subject to deadlines in almost every aspect of our lives, from homework to after-school sports. As adults, deadlines stretch from projects at work to bills and taxes due. If you […]
IT MAY SEEM STRANGE in a journaling series on relationships to focus on oneself, but when you think about it, what other relationship in your life is more immediate, more impactful, more intimate, or more important? Our relationships with others truly begin with ourselves. Yet, for the most part, we […]
HOW OFTEN DO YOU THINK ABOUT your extended family beyond your grandparents — your aunts, uncles, and cousins? The importance of these relationships are mostly unrecognized in our culture today. Yet, involved aunts and uncles can have tremendous positive impact on children. Not only emotionally, but economically as well. For […]
LAUNCHING A BOOK is not for the faint of heart — whether publishing traditionally or doing it yourself. I am reminded of this fact daily now, in my efforts to keep up with all the tasks related to launching my second memoir, Accidental Jesus Freak: One Woman’s Journey from Fundamentalism […]
“My grandfather always said that living is like licking honey off a thorn.” ― Louis Adamic GRANDFATHERS — We don’t write much about them, or at least I don’t see much about them in the stories I read. Why is that? Do they not take up much space in our lives? […]
I AM PLEASED AND HONORED to introduce Sara Etgen-Baker. I met Sara virtually when she submitted her work for inclusion in the anthology, Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the 60s and 70s. Since then, Sara has been a regular reader of and commenter on Writing Through Life, and we […]
“Everything comes out in the wash.” — Grandma Kreiss GRANDPARENTS are an important part of the extended family, often having a direct role in caring for and nurturing children. Grandmothers, in particular, can have an influential place in the family, helping out with childcare when Mom is sick or taking […]
