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Conscious Connections
"The best thing to hold onto in life is each other."
-Audrey Hepburn
Recommended Reading
The Labyrinth of Love
by, Chelsea Wakefield, PhD
In this helpful and enlightening book, expert couples therapist, Dr. Chelsea Wakefield, explains why couples who begin with such hopeful expectations become disenchanted, withdraw into self-protection or become entangled in unresolvable conflicts. She provides step by step guidance out of these shadowlands, and teaches six essential "love capacities" any couple can develop that will open the path to a soulful, enduring relationship.
(The author also happens to be family, and my son designed the book cover.)
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Self-Care Ideas During Divorce
Divorce is not only a legal or logistical process—it’s an emotional one that can affect nearly every part of daily life. Even when the decision is clear, the experience often brings waves of stress, sadness, uncertainty, and exhaustion that can feel difficult to manage all at once.
How to Handle Difficult Topics Without Fighting
Many arguments don’t actually start because of the topic itself. They start because of how the conversation begins, how emotions escalate, or how quickly people move into defense instead of understanding. The goal isn’t to avoid hard conversations, but to learn how to have them without turning them into fights.
Navigating Social Events When You’re Single
Being single at social events doesn’t have to feel uncomfortable or like something you need to “get through.” With a bit of perspective and intention, these moments can actually feel light, grounding, and even enjoyable in their own right.
Early Red Flags You Shouldn’t Ignore
Noticing red flags isn’t about becoming guarded—it’s about being informed. It helps you make choices based on what is actually happening, not just what feels possible.
Helping Kids Learn From Mistakes
Mistakes are something every child makes—over and over again, in all kinds of ways. Spilled drinks, forgotten homework, harsh words said in frustration, or choices that don’t turn out the way they expected. As adults, it’s easy to want to step in quickly and fix things or prevent mistakes altogether. But in reality, mistakes are one of the most important parts of a child’s growth.
What Makes a True Friend
Friendship can mean a lot of different things at different stages of life. Some friendships are light and easy, built around shared interests or convenience. Others run much deeper—steady, supportive, and quietly reliable. Those are the ones we tend to think of as true friendships.
Understanding Generational Differences
Understanding generational differences isn’t about labeling people or making assumptions. It’s more about stepping back and realizing, “Oh, that makes sense, given what they grew up with.” And once you start looking at it that way, a lot of things become easier to understand—and a lot less frustrating.
What it Really Means to Be Part of a Community
Being part of a community is one of those ideas that seems simple at first glance, but becomes more layered the longer you reflect on it. Most people think of community as a place they live, a group they belong to, or a collection of familiar faces they occasionally interact with. But real community is not defined by geography or membership alone. It’s shaped by participation, attention, and the ongoing relationship between people who share space, even if only in passing.
Talking to Your Children About Divorce
Talking to children about divorce is one of the most emotionally delicate conversations a parent can have. Even when the decision feels clear or necessary, explaining it to a child brings a different kind of weight—because you’re not just processing your own change, you’re helping them make sense of theirs.
The Role of Trust in Long-Term Commitment
Trust isn’t just about believing someone won’t betray you. It’s much broader than that. It’s about feeling emotionally safe, confident in consistency, and secure enough in the relationship that you don’t have to constantly question where you stand.
Without trust, even strong relationships can feel unstable. With it, even imperfect relationships can feel steady and sustainable.
Situationships: What They Are and How to Avoid Them
Dating today can feel more flexible than ever. People connect in different ways, timelines aren’t always clear, and relationships don’t always follow traditional paths. In the middle of all that flexibility, a newer kind of dynamic has become more common: the situationship.
How Pets Teach Us Unconditional Love
Pets don’t measure us by productivity, success, or how we look on a given day. They don’t care whether we’ve had a good week, whether we’ve made mistakes, or whether we’re feeling confident or overwhelmed. Their affection tends to remain steady regardless of circumstance.
Teaching Kids the Value of Community Participation
When children grow up seeing that they are connected to something beyond their immediate home, they begin to understand that the world around them is shared. Not just physically shared, but emotionally and socially shared. That shift in awareness is what eventually turns “me” into “we.”
Finding Peace When Divorce Wasn’t Your Choice
Few life experiences feel as destabilizing as a divorce you didn’t ask for. It’s not just the end of a relationship—it’s the loss of a future you were still emotionally invested in. Even if things were difficult, there’s often a difference between choosing an ending and having it chosen for you.
Maintaining Individual Identity in Marriage
Marriage is often described as two people becoming “one team,” and while that’s true in many ways, it can sometimes create confusion about where one person ends and the other begins. Over time, it’s easy for shared routines, decisions, and responsibilities to blur individual identity if there isn’t a conscious effort to maintain it.
The Joy of Solo Evenings
The joy of solo evenings isn’t about filling time or avoiding loneliness. It’s about discovering what it feels like to exist in your own space without pressure, interruption, or adjustment.
Navigating Dating Apps Without Burnout
Dating apps were designed to make meeting people easier, but for many, they end up doing the opposite over time. What starts as a sense of possibility can slowly turn into fatigue—endless swiping, repetitive conversations, inconsistent matches, and the feeling that you’re putting in more energy than you’re getting back.
Coping With the Loss of a Pet
Losing a pet is one of those experiences that can feel surprisingly heavy, especially for something that many people outside the situation might not fully understand. To some, it may seem “just an animal,” but for the person who lived with them day after day, they were routine, comfort, companionship, and a constant presence in life.
Balancing Work and Family Life
Most people don’t realize how often they’re trying to be in two places at once. Even when you’re sitting at your desk focused on work, part of your mind might be thinking about what needs to be done at home. And when you’re at home, work often isn’t far from your thoughts either. Balancing work and family life is really about navigating that constant pull without feeling like you’re failing on either side.
Creating Strong Neighborhood Relationships
Strong neighborhood relationships aren’t really built through effortful “community building” in the formal sense. They come from something much simpler: being a consistent, respectful presence in the place where you live.
The Stages of Grief in Divorce
Divorce is often described as an ending, but for the people going through it, it’s rarely experienced as a single moment. It unfolds over time, emotionally and practically, and often feels more like a process of adjustment than a clean break.
Small Daily Habits That Strengthen Marriage
When people think about strengthening a marriage, they often imagine big gestures or major turning points—long vacations, milestone anniversaries, or serious conversations about the future. While those moments matter, the real foundation of a strong marriage is usually built somewhere much quieter.
The Quiet Freedom of Being Single
Being single is often talked about in extremes—either as something to “fix” or something to celebrate loudly. But most of the experience doesn’t actually live in either of those places. It’s quieter than that. More ordinary. More day-to-day.
Understanding Your Attachment Style in Dating
Understanding your attachment style in dating is really about understanding how you connect, protect yourself, and seek closeness with others. It helps explain why certain patterns feel familiar, even when they don’t always feel good.
Helping Kids Build Confidence
Confidence in children is built in small, ordinary moments. It’s not about big achievements or constant praise—it’s about the steady experiences that help them feel capable, supported, and understood.
How to Build Meaningful Friendships as an Adult
Making friends as an adult can feel surprisingly complicated. When you’re younger, friendships often form naturally—through school, sports, or simply being in the same place at the same time. But adulthood changes that rhythm. People are busier, routines are more fixed, and life is filled with responsibilities that leave less room for spontaneous connection.
Birds as Companions: What to Know
Unlike more traditional pets, birds bring a different kind of energy into a home. They are alert, expressive, and highly social in their own way. Living with a bird isn’t just about care routines—it’s about learning a different kind of communication and connection.
How to Volunteer When You Have a Busy Schedule
Volunteering often gets framed as something that requires large blocks of free time, a flexible schedule, and plenty of energy. That image alone can make it feel out of reach for people who are already juggling work, family responsibilities, appointments, and the general demands of everyday life. But meaningful volunteering doesn’t have to look like a major weekly commitment. In reality, there are many ways to contribute that fit into a busy schedule.
Grandparents and Their Lasting Influence
Some of the most meaningful influences in our lives don’t come from big, dramatic moments—they come from steady, familiar people who show up again and again. Grandparents often fill that role in a way that feels both comforting and quietly powerful. They exist just outside the daily rush of parenting, offering a steadier, often gentler perspective shaped by time, experience, and reflection.
Feng Shui for Relationship Harmony at Home
As your environment becomes more balanced and supportive, you may notice subtle but powerful changes in your relationship. Conversations may feel easier, time together more fulfilling, and the overall atmosphere more peaceful. In this way, your home becomes more than just a place you share—it becomes a quiet partner in creating harmony, connection, and lasting emotional warmth.
Hygge for Singles: Creating Comfort Alone
Hygge is often associated with shared experiences—people gathered around a table, warm lighting, good food, and easy conversation. That side of it definitely exists, but hygge itself isn’t dependent on company. It’s really about the feeling a moment creates: calm, ease, warmth, and a sense that nothing is being rushed or forced.
Review: The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins
The Let Them Theory is a straightforward, motivational self-help book centered on the idea of releasing control over other people’s choices, opinions, and behavior. Written by Mel Robbins, the book builds on her signature style of simple, repeatable mental tools designed to reduce stress and increase personal agency.
Review: The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann
You gotta love a business "strategy" that's mostly just about being a decent human. The Go-Giver is a short, parable-style business fable that challenges conventional ideas about success, achievement, and value. Written by Bob Burg and John David Mann, the book uses a simple narrative structure to deliver a message that feels both philosophical and practical: true success comes from giving more than you receive.
Review: Light Her Fire by Ellen Kreidman
Light Her Fire by Ellen Kreidman is a relationship guide focused on rekindling emotional connection, attraction, and long-term passion in romantic partnerships. Written in a direct, advice-driven style, the book aims to help readers—primarily men in heterosexual relationships—better understand how to keep emotional and romantic energy alive after the initial excitement of a relationship fades.
Review: How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
*As an Amazon affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases. How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk is a practical and influential parenting guide focused on transforming the way adults communicate with children. Written by communication educators Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, the book builds a structured framework for reducing conflict, increasing cooperation, and strengthening emotional connection through everyday conversations. As a mother of 9 I found t
Review: The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts by Gary Chapman
The 5 Love Languages has become a cornerstone in relationship self-help, offering a clear and memorable framework for understanding how people express and experience love. Written by Gary Chapman, the book is grounded in years of counseling experience and aims to bridge the gap between intention and emotional connection in relationships.
Review: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
*As an Amazon affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin is a nonfiction account that tells the story of building schools in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, focusing on Mortenson’s efforts to promote education—especially for girls—in underserved mountain communities. One of the book’s most compelling aspects is its central narrative of persistence in the face of extreme logistical and cultural challenges.
Choosing the Right Pet for Your Family
Choosing the right pet for your family is both a joyful and deeply important decision—one that can shape your home life for years to come. A pet is not just a companion; it becomes part of your family’s daily rhythm, emotional landscape, and shared experiences. Because of this, making the right choice requires a balance of excitement, honesty, and careful planning.
Displaying my Grandma's Treasures
I've been feeling sentimental as of late, and felt prompted to bring Grandma's collectables out of hiding, and back into view. At my favorite local antique shop I found the display racks shown above in these photos, and hung them in prominent places in my home. I want my kids to see them regularly. They didn't have the opportunity to know their lovely great-grandmother, but she can still be influential and present in their lives through these items and all that they represent
Never Miss the Chance to Make Someone Else Smile
Love people. Just simply love them and they will feel it. Never miss a chance to make someone else smile. Their happiness will radiate right back to you.
Never Shut Up
I had my older kids pretty much convinced when they were little that "shut up" was a swear word. I still kind of think of it that way. There is a cruelty in such a demand. To enforce or even imply that someone else's voice ought to be silenced is arrogant and often dangerous.
The Lost Art of Letter Writing
I fear that in this age of email and texting, the art of handwritten letter writing is getting lost. I can't argue that the new ways are far faster and more convenient. I use them too, and wouldn't want to go back to a time when I couldn't communicate with such speed and efficiency. However, we often aren't as cautious with what we say when responding so quickly. In the massive barrage of messages we don't pay as close of attention to what others are saying either.
Sometimes You Follow
After a couple of months taking ballroom dance lessons, I have come to a surprising realization. The hardest part for me has not been the steps or the rhythm as I had expected. Those have been coming fairly naturally. As it turns out, the thing I have found most challenging is learning how to follow.
Shoutout to the Single Parents
Single parenting is not for sissies. It's really tough. So I want you to know today that you are seen. You are known. You are loved. I understand, because I am in the trenches beside you. Most of us didn't plan to become single parents. Life took turns we didn't expect, but yet here we are.
No Rebuttals Please
It’s important to remember that your relationship isn’t a war to be won. If it’s feeling like a battle far too often, try taking the rebuttals out of the conversation. Lead with active listening, and a sincere effort to understand. Even if both parties aren’t giving at that level, change can begin with only one person stepping out of the fight, and into the love. Winning an argument may be somewhat satisfying at a low level, but the real lasting victory comes from building tr
The Most Important Answers Aren't Found on the Internet
The internet is great for facts, figures, amusing anecdotes and research. We can even find self-help information, motivation and a form of connection on its pages. But spiritual inspiration, advice from loved ones and intuition are important resources too, when seeking answers to the questions that matter most. Love and pure wisdom on a real, personalized level are not found on a computer screen, and I don’t believe they ever will be.
Jealous? Are You Sure?
Jealousy cannot stand in the face of gratitude and love for others. So let's retrain that impulse to envy into an impulse to be overjoyed when others succeed. In fact, to help them to do so as often as possible. Let’s turn that envious moment into a gratitude fest and watch how fast that changes our feelings. With this mindset the answer to “are you sure you’re jealous?” will almost always be NO!!
Anger
When we act with kindness, and forgive the failings of those around us, we ourselves are more at peace, healthier and happier. So don't do it for them. Do it for you!!
Being "Nice" Isn't Always Nice
I'd like to think that most people that know me would consider me a pretty nice person. Kindness is something I deeply value and try hard to embody and demonstrate in my life. The unfortunate truth is, however, that sometimes that desire to be perpetually "nice" can end up having some decidedly "not nice" consequences. It can even be skillfully used against you by those with selfish motives.
My Top 5 Favorite Books About Parenting
These are 5 of the best books I have relied on for advice during my own parenting journey:
Want to become a more confident public speaker and leader?
Toastmasters is a worldwide speaking and leadership club that's been around since 1924. I have had the privilege of serving as president of our local Destin/South Walton chapter. Guests are welcome to attend. Public speaking has long been known to be among the greatest fears people have. Toastmasters helps you hone your skills in a friendly, supportive, and fun environment. To find a meeting near you visit the website: https://www.toastmasters.org/
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