Patience and the miyagi Factor
Patience is a virtue, they say—or maybe just the opposite of madness.
When Are You?
Once in awhile, something major happens—the loss of a loved one, the birth of a child, the lay off, the big promotion—nudging you to glance at the clock and check if you’re any closer to someday. You feel a new, even if fleeting, sense of urgency to swipe hold of joy, to be really in it, lest you miss it.
Fishbowl
We were at a Waffle House, probably on the road to or from somewhere, but I don't remember. To the server, I probably looked like your average pre-teen having breakfast with her parents and younger sister. We sat two by two at a four-top by the window. The symmetry was beginning to feel familiar enough, even though I still sometimes felt like I was sinking in the hole my brother left behind when my parents sent him across the country to a boarding school for emotionally troubled teens.
We were a family broken, but we did our best to pretend otherwise as often as possible. At least I did. I didn’t like talking about it. I didn’t like thinking about what was wrong with us.
“So we want to talk to you girls about something,” my Dad said.
Optimism and Anxiety Can Coexist
For me, anxiety comes packaged as little nightmares like this one, as perfectionism, as an intense need for control, as physical illness, or as a gaping emotional distance from the people I love. It’s a splinter in my life that, for the most part, I’ve slowly learned to live alongside more full