I’m turning 33 today. 33 is my scary age. I don’t really know why this is, except that it’s the age Jesus was when he died. I know, that sounds ridiculous, like I’m somehow comparing myself to Jesus. I can’t explain why it matters, but it does. That strong Catholic upbringing sometimes rears its head […]
Self Improvement
What’s The Opposite of Fear?
Many emotional states have polar opposites. Happy, unhappy. Excited, calm. Accepting, resisting. But what’s the opposite of fear? To my mind, these are the top contenders: Courage, Faith, Hope, and Logic. Courage is the most obvious choice. The opposite of something should be capable of combatting it. If you feel courage in the face of fear, […]
Child’s Fear, Parent’s Fear: A New Space
My good friend/cousin recently had a baby. Soon afterward, Edwin and I went to visit her and the baby at their house. Edwin has been there before, but not often. As soon as we got in the door, he was glued to my side. He huddled next to me, sucking on his pacifier, and barely […]
Little Steps Defeat Big Fears
Fear is a big, mysterious concept. We know it when we feel it, but we find it hard to explain where it comes from. (In that way, fear is a lot like bravery, another indefinable force that I wrote about in a guest post for the Female Yoda.) Fear can often be crippling; it has a […]
July’s Mini-Series: Fear
I’ve been really happy with my new system of focusing on one topic, like a mini-series, for each month. So far, we’ve explored beauty in May, and parenting in June (in the past, there was also November’s gratitude series and February’s cancer series). You might think that for July, the quintessential summer month, I’d choose to write […]
The Sowul Commandments
One of the things I found most inspiring in Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project was her list of “commandments” for how she wanted to live her life. I decided to make a list of my own, and share it with you. I’d love to hear if anyone else has created personal commandments, either formally or informally, […]