When I was 24 years old, my boyfriend of only a few months, a quiet and introverted personal trainer, screamed at me for suggesting an alternative driving route. It was a learning experience.

A week later, I broke it off. I couldn’t shake the visceral feelings I had. He had turned me into someone from his past. Someone that once created feelings of hurt and anger for him.

When it comes to relationships, much of the advice says, stick it out and communicate your way through.

But for me, there is one good reason not to.

The man I’ve been…

The other night my daughter threw me under the bus. She told my boyfriend I have bad morning breath. Just blurted it out for no reason.

It was kinda funny because I’m the person in the family that brushes my teeth right after I wake up, so I don’t offend anyone. My children do not, and their foul warm air wafts over my face as we snuggle in bed every Sunday morning.

So I did what any good Mom would do. Retaliate.

I reminded her of the putrid smells that come from the toilet when she makes a deposit. Then…

I have always focused on being the parent that comes from a place of empathy. I see my children as people, as unique and entirely separate to me. Turning my kids into me has never been the goal.

So it came as a shock when my tween daughter shut me down. I didn’t see myself as the kind of parent to make a kid disconnect.

We were walking home from school, and she launched into a story about her best friend, who was acting weird. I listened intently and then asked a few questions. A minute later, she put a…

My boss said something this week that reeked of interference from a well-meaning person. She said, ‘I really need to learn to focus on one thing at a time’. I had walked into the shop about 30 minutes earlier, at the start of my shift, buckets of flowers freshly purchased from the morning markets were scattered here and there and freshly made floral bouquets were taking over every surface of our work area. It was clear she was juggling a busy day ahead, and it was barely 8am.

Where did she get this idea, that to be successful, you must focus on one thing at a time?

…I would suggest from someone who has perhaps rejected their own creativity.

…

This morning my daughter yelled at me saying she had to be at school for 8am and told me last night. It was a lie.

I was perplexed why she was behaving this way in front of her Dad, who’d driven over to take them to breakfast before school because I leave for work at 7:30am.

He tried to come to my defence, ‘Don’t speak like that to your…’ but I stopped him. It’s okay, I said.

He and I have different ways of relating to our children. …

My daughter has spent the last eight weeks doing errands around the house to save up for a desk. She wants to feel grown-up, because at age 11, this comes in the form of a private study area. She’s been fantasising about her desk — and kid stationery of all things. So when restrictions here in Australia lifted, I went online to click-and-collect.

But on Sunday morning, we ended up in line to enter Ikea, 1.5 meters apart. The ability to collect was not available for the weekend and I did’nt want April to have to wait a whole week…

When I was 27-years-old, I asked my mother a question that had been percolating for years. It was hard to ask. Part of me was afraid of the answer. She’d just flown across the country to spend her 60th birthday with me in Vancouver. So I gave her time to settle into my downtown condo.

As we sat on my new Ikea couch, a few days into her stay, overlooking floor to ceiling windows with a view of the local mountains, I eased my way in. I made her a tea and raised something about my childhood, and the particular…

What is it to be a deep thinker? Many thoughts swirl around in our minds, yet little comes out our mouths before we’re ready to share. But do we need to think our way through our problems too, or is there another way that can give us more freedom?

Many years ago, I had an interaction with someone that helped me to understand that the conscious mind has a job to do, but that job is not to be in charge. Nowadays, I would reject anyone pushing a one-size-fits-all approach to life, but back then it made sense for me.

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