Not-So-Unconditional Love

Not-So-Unconditional Love

Here I go again, raining on your parade. But I guess better to hear from me than from someone more important to you … Unconditional love between partners does not exist.  Because, accountability counts. It is possible to erode love, whether slowly or quickly,...
Go Around Again

Go Around Again

Many of you know that I ran track in high school. The mile run was my specialty. That’s four laps around for you sports novices. After the many logged hours of pre-race training, all that was needed was a strategy as to pace and take over and then the sheer will to...
Long-Term Love

Long-Term Love

“How do we know when it is going to work?” she asked, the healing-hearted woman in a hurting couple. “You don’t,” I said truthfully and painfully, so wishing I had a different answer. A better answer. A reassuring answer. Because, it’s a daily decision to invest in a...
Perfect Schmerfect

Perfect Schmerfect

“But, I had a perfect childhood,” I hear for the thousandth time. Yet, right before me – in full-blown technicolor – are the obvious behavioral and emotional signs that something went awry. Show me the thumbprint. I guarantee you there was a thumb. “That’s...
Red, White and Blues

Red, White and Blues

I wish I could tell you I was standing in a crowded parade line. Waving my red, white and blues. Enjoying every bite of a bad hot dog while singing patriotic songs off-key, of course. But, alas, I am not. Rather, than shouting prideful hip-hip-hoorays at being a lucky...
Persistent Beauty

Persistent Beauty

The crocuses are popping up all over Washington. I’m not sure what they are thinking given that it is still hat-and-glove weather here in our nation’s capital. I can hear them – “Really, we are on now? Can’t we sleep a little longer till the ground is softer and the...