Do you have a transactional relationship that you need help unwinding from?

There are times when the best medicine is to stick your head in the sand. This is exactly what one friend wanted to do last week. When overwhelmed by dissonance, confusion, anger, gut wrenching fear and existential angst, avoiding reality - for a little while - can be an act of self care. 

An advantage that we survivors have today is that we’ve already lived through feeling like our people and our world have turned against us.

We humans are capable of working through extreme discomfort - and through this process, we become more human, more beautiful, more real.

To be a survivor of cultic abuse is to rise from the ashes of systems designed to dehumanize and claim a seat at life’s table.

When Donald Trump exited the courtroom on January 25, 2024 after testifying in his own defense in the E. Jean Carrol defamation suit, he shook his head and said repeatedly, “This is not America. This is not America.”*  (Classic DT multi-purpose statement.)

The Pacific NorthWest (PNW) - and the Portland area in particular - have wowed and nourished me these past two weeks with stunning beauty, engaging people and hard-to-put-my-finger-on-it-qualities that make me certain this will not be my last rodeo here. I feel a sense of being held in a way that I normally only feel at home. With my first official book tour and events behind me, I feel a gentle tug back East - but not before sharing this with you.

My friend Jane had the coolest book launch party ever. Her memoir, Spirit Traffic brings readers into the saddle of her motorcycle as she rides cross-country with her college age son and husband – before returning home to an empty nest. In addition to the expected reading of enticing excerpts from her book, Jane included a Moth-style storytelling hour with the topic, What Adventure Looks Like to Me. While driving to the event, I mapped out my adventure story and hoped I’d have the nerve to tell it – but lucky for me – the slip of paper with my name on it wasn’t picked. Today however, in honor of my mother and the fact that none of us would be here without our mother, I want to tell my Mothering Adventure Story.