An addictions rehabilitation program used the quote, “the opposite of addiction is connection” in an ad I recently saw on television. Brilliant, I thought. The answer to most of our emotional, mental, or relational problems is connection. Children need connection; adults need connection; and spouses need connection. Therapy rooms...

My husband and I visited my youngest daughter at Purdue this weekend. As we drove through campus, I was surprised at how many kids were walking around, laughing and enjoying each other. Most were wearing masks, but not all, as they gathered in the warm spring air. The atmosphere...

After weeks of staying at home, my soul feels like dry bones on an old corpse. The desert is my dwelling place and I am more parched than ever. I long for life, for connection, and for community. The news reports tell me to be afraid, to stay at...

During this time of national crisis and mandated social distancing, isolation is the next critical threat. Pre crisis, the majority of people had the first and second levels of community. Again, pre crisis, most people interacted with at least a handful of people on a daily basis. Now, with...

  Fireflies lit up the night sky in a sweet dance. The air was rich with the sound of crickets and tree frogs. I closed my eyes to drink in the warm, summer air that enveloped me like a blanket. Sipping sweet tea on the deck, my friend began...

The gurgle of the coffee maker resonated from the kitchen as I hurried down the stairs. Evidence of the chaos of graduation and the open house was scattered throughout the house. The long list of things I needed to do was daunting, making my lack of energy all the...

It’s official. I am a parent of an eighteen-year-old—a legal adult. I can’t deny it anymore. Not that I don’t feel it in the air whenever we are together. It is a general rejecting of my parenting that I sense. I can feel her trying to relate to me...

We must teach our children to think in terms of whether things are temporary and will pass away, or are eternal and will endure. Focusing on the eternal tends to separate easily what is and what is not important in this life....

Several years ago, as I began writing my book, Pouring In, I talked to a mentor friend of mine who had three adult children. Deb was/is older and wiser and we have known each other since I was in high school. I wanted her thoughts on the idea of...

In exactly eleven weeks from today, my daughter graduates from high school. It is the spring of my daughter’s senior year, the final countdown. She turns eighteen on Sunday and she is so ready to launch. The question is, Am I ready to let her? The answer is—no, I’m not....