Deb saw me at five with her picture on my kindergarten poster. Now, decades later, she's reading my blog and suggests I close this volume. But when your vegetable garden finally starts yielding bounty, you don't stop tending it—you just change what you call it from "I Used to Be" to "I Am."
The Old Maid’s Golf Lesson: What My Student Taught Me About Self-Love
A brilliant student's blog post about wanting to be seen as beautiful and smart made me face my own fear: what if people see me for who I really am? Then a golf game with family taught me to remember only the good hits.
Second Chances and Fresh Canvases: Painting a New Life After Divorce
A paint-and-sip date night became an unexpected metaphor for marriage, failure, and the grace of starting over. Sometimes you need to paint an entirely different picture.
Trading Wedding Rings for a Garden: Finding Beauty After Divorce
At my friend's wedding, I arranged flowers while wrestling with memories of my own failed marriage. Sometimes the most beautiful arrangements come from broken things.
The Piano I Left Behind and the Love I Found Again
I left our piano with my ex-husband because playing it without him felt like a lie. Seven years later, at a wedding with someone new, I discovered what second chances really mean.
Playing LIFE with My Boyfriend Taught Me What’s Missing: There’s No Divorce in Board Games
I sued Charming three times and still felt jealous of his blue-peg children. In Hasbro's LIFE, marriage is guaranteed—a mandatory stop for all players. But neither of us had instructions for when real marriages bite the dust. Maybe that's why we keep playing: we still have a chance to get it right.
Missing Golf Balls, Growing Cucumbers, and the Size 8 Dress That Changed Everything
I can't hit a golf ball to save my life, but I squeezed into that bridesmaid dress. Sometimes thriving means accepting you're terrible at Top Golf while celebrating the herbs finally sprouting in your garden.
Three Men, One Rollercoaster, and the Memory That Won’t Stay Buried
I've ridden the Griffon with three different men—my ex-husband, a rebound, and now Charming. Time buried the first memory but not the second. Sometimes we don't get on rollercoasters for the climb; we're seeking the thrill of the drop.
Thirty Feet Underground, Granite Taught Me We’re All Tending the Wrong Garden
Spring cleaning attacked my surfaces—dust, pounds, garden blooms. Then water on granite in a wine cellar showed me what I couldn't see: we focus on visible beauty while our roots determine everything. Physical health doesn't reflect the emotional, spiritual, mental. What good is a clean house when you're six feet under?
Keep Your Head Down Through Barbed Wire—And Other Wisdom That Saves You
Charming's voice echoed in my head under the barbed wire at Rugged Maniac: 'Keep your head down. Your shoulders will follow.' It was my father at the golf course all over again. Sometimes the people who love us give advice we don't know we need until we're face-down in mud, grateful they cared enough to warn us.
Writer's Growth 