MOTHERS are fertile ground for memoir writers — we have innumerable stories arising from their temperaments, parenting styles, and influence. Most of us have observations and judgments about our mothers that, let’s face it, they’d rather not read in an essay or book written by one of their children. Yet, […]
“You don’t need to change the world; you need to change yourself.” ― Don Miguel Ruiz IF YOU’VE BEEN FOLLOWING THIS SERIES and journaling about the relationships in your life, you began with writing about the most fundamental of all relationships — your parents. You then branched out to write about your […]
WHAT IS THE NATURE and quality of your relationships with managers, colleagues, and clients? Do you have friendships with the people you work with? Do you get together with them outside the office, or are your work and personal lives kept separate? These are a few of the questions we’ll […]
Human relationships used to be easy: you had friends, boy- or girlfriends, parents, children, and landlords. Now, thanks to social media, it’s all gone sideways. — Susan Orlean HOW MUCH TIME each day do you spend on social media interacting with “friends”? Do you have hundreds of these friends, or […]
“Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.” ― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray THE WORLD HAS MUCH TO SAY ABOUT CHILDREN AND PARENTING. I can’t even speculate how many thousands of books have been written on the topics of child development, […]
WHEN IT COMES TO RELATIONSHIPS, what is dating? Does dating even fall under the term “relationship”? What if you’re not serious about the person and only dating casually? What’s the difference? If you perform a search on the internet about dating and relationships, most articles contend that you’re not in […]
“A friend is someone who can brighten your day with a simple smile, when others try to do it with a thousand words.” ― Beth Nimmo “Some of the friendships I’ve found as an adult are far more rewarding than those forged out of the convenience of adolescence.” ― Rachel […]
NEXT TO YOUR EARLIEST childhood friend, the friends you hung out with when you were a teen probably had the greatest influence on your life. As you moved into your teen years, you likely began to spend less time with your family and more with your peers. You started to […]
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 […]
“Modern families are complicated things. Siblings, half siblings, stepparents, stepcousins, what have you. You can’t pick who you’re born to, that’s for sure.” ― Cherie Priest DID YOU GROW UP WITH ONE OR MORE STEPPARENTS? According to the *Pew Research Foundation, as of 2011 more than four in ten American adults […]
YOUR FAMILY OF ORIGIN — the family you grew up with and not necessarily the family into which you were born — is where you learn to become the person you are. Certainly, you were born with a genetic set of predispositions, but humans, like other primates, learn primarily by […]
WELCOME TO A NEW WritingThroughLife SERIES about journaling into and through relationships! From the beginning of our lives, relationships form and inform us. From our parents or caregivers, to siblings, extended family, friends, teachers, and lovers, every interaction leaves its mark on our development as human beings. Whether we were […]
