You are so much more Previously published in the Hughson Chronicle-Denair Dispatch Upon a Google search, Wikipedia stated “One’s self-concept (also called self-construction, self-identity, self-perspective or self-structure) is a collection of beliefs about oneself. Generally, self-concept embodies the answer to ‘Who am I?’.” In my self-concept, I look
Previously published in the Hughson Chronicle-Denair Dispatch. “Did it take you a long time to learn to be patient?” My 8-year-old asked. She admitted it was hard to stay patient while we waited for the jousting to begin during the Sonora Celtic Fair. “Patience is a virtue,” the adults
Previously published in the Hughson Chronicle-Denair Dispatch I steal away for a few moments to write these words between the flickering of the tree lights, the sound of a four-year-old yelling “puddles!”, and the slam of the door as she escapes. The toddler slams his favorite step stool
This is Katy. Katy became Kathryn. And Kathryn became Kathryn Casey. A few months later Kathryn Casey became “Mommy” but she never got to meet her child because at the emergency department, they learned the little 7-week old sac inside her was empty. I felt
Previously published at the Hughson Chronicle-Denair Dispatch. Bright red strawberries alongside burnt pizza crust. Using the hospital tray, I meticulously cut strawberries into fourths to be drowned in Yoplait vanilla yogurt. Trash lines the people-flooded street we cross to enter the Orpheum Theater, tickets in hand, for a remarkable musical.
What do “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” even mean? Free to live my life and pursue happiness? Carl Rogers thought so. He thought whatever you wanted was justified. So he left his ill wife and pursued happiness. John Stuart Mill said as long as it does not hurt
This article to appear in the Hughson Chronicle-Denair Dispatch. I started and put down In this House of Brede, Brideshed Revisited, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Shakespeare’s Complete Works (do not make the mistake of starting with “Titus Andronicus”). I read Flannery O’Conner’s Manners and Mystery, a quick read about writing.
Perhaps you’ve heard the term self-esteem. It gets thrown around here. Can you define it? Before opening The Good Life – Life Coaching, I worked with high school students through the Center for Human Services. Schools care a lot about students’ self-esteem. When I asked clients what self-esteem is many
Friendships seemed so simple when we were little. Growing from friendships of proximity (if she plays with me at the park, she’s my friend) to clubhouses, to rule-governed friendships, to she who can braid my hair is my best friend or whoever has the X-box, and eventually the emotional closeness,
Perhaps cultural practices require some evolution, like children, to reach maturity. In the middle ages, etiquette was a way to prevent violence among warriors. In the Victorian period, it distinguished between classes. Thus the ornate rules among the diners at Downton Abbey. Now, according to Diane Gottsman, manners have become
