Ginger's Blog
Life as Teacher
I am writing this at 35,000 feet. It’s dark out the window portal, not that I could tell where I am anyway. One farm blends into another. I imagine I am somewhere between Indiana and Iowa, as I cross the country to visit my son in boarding school. Two days of travel...
New You, Becoming a Better You
New Year, New You. I hate that phrase. Because I hate that idea. Makes it sound like something is wrong with me. Like I need some kind of “new me.” Screw that. I want to have – and appreciate – the old me. The one that climbed out of a difficult childhood and a more...
Go For It
A common dynamic I often experience in working with patients is the resistance to emotionally outgrow one’s parents. A patient often feels guilt and shame in reaching new psychological heights and thus, abandoning his or her parents by leaving them behind in their own...
If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another
“If it’s not one thing, it’s another.” Sounds so cynical. But it’s true. Life is not meant to be problem-free. Somehow, we indoctrinated this idea that by solving all our problems, or even solving the one problem that we are focused on in this moment, then we will be...
Eating Poop
Who eats the shit pile? That’s a more profane form (of course, I will pick that route) of that childhood game of hot potato. Who’s going to be left holding the hot potato? “Not I!” screams the excited child. And he or she casts the steaming vegetable quickly across...
Flying High
One of my favorite acts at the circus is the trapeze. High-fliers doing the impossible. Defying gravity as they flip and fly gracefully across space in ways that humans are not meant to do. And they never seem to fall. (I’m not even sure why they have nets. They seem...
Five Minutes
It was only for five minutes. But it was the best five minutes of the whole day. In the middle of thawing the turkey (don’t you hate that part?) and making the stuffing, the phone rang. I thought it was a family member with the annual mandatory Thanksgiving greeting....
These Are My Days
Grey hair? Check. Less energy? Check. Memory loss? Check. Hot flashes? Creaky knees? Boring Saturday nights? Damn it. Check, check, check. Yes, I have all the signs of solid middle-age creeping into old age. But recently, I discovered yet another symptom of rounding...
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