How to Be a Good Enough Mother
Empowerment, Health
“I feel I need to be perfect. I was like this pre-baby, but something about having a child makes you go into overdrive on the perfection.”
“I want so badly to be everything to my child. I feel like I should take her out every day and…
Keeping Your Child Safe from Predators
Empowerment, Health
It’s a sickening and enraging thought that my tween son and teenage niece are considered fair game in the sexual exploits of predators. But as disturbing as the thought of a sexual predator is, the truth is child molesters lurk all around…
Honoring the Iron Lady in Our Lives
Empowerment, Health
Watching The Iron Lady on the big screen, I was suddenly taken out of the film by a flash of recognition. For a moment, I saw my great aunt Concepcion—known to us as To (my brother and I called her Toe)—come to life before me. Like Margaret…
An Open Letter to Demi Moore
Empowerment, Health
Dear Demi,
I don't know you. So I ask you to forgive my false familiarity. We have New Mexico in common, and I know of people who knew you growing up in Roswell. From what I've heard, you had a rough start in this world. So I…
3 Tips to Start Your Day In a Healthy Way
Empowerment, Health
Many of us use the momentum of the New Year to get healthy. But what does that actually look like for you? Is your desire to be in good health broken down into tangible goals or is your resolution simply to “get healthier in 2012"?
In…
To Fix Your Body, First You Must Fix Your Soul
Empowerment, Health
It's funny how things are all connected, when you really sit down to look at them. Well, not funny in a comedic sense, but funny as in interesting. For years, I have had trouble controlling my impulses. Many people who knew me understood…
Not Meant to be a Mom?
Empowerment, Health
“You’re getting pregnant this weekend,” my doctor announced.
I sat up to look at him between my feet in the exam table stirrups. “Are you sure?” He showed me the results of the internal ultrasound: Those three little blobs were…
I Want to Party Like...My Parents!
Empowerment, Health
In Proust’s novel, Remembrance of Things Past the narrator is transported back in time with the taste of the soft cookies called Madeleines dipped in tea. For me it is hearing the laughter of adults at a party.
My parents threw great…
Pay it Forward: Be a Good Mentor
Empowerment, Health
In the late 1990s, I was a high school teacher in Charlotte’s inner-city. My students had stories that were so similar to mine: lower middle class, immigrant, minority, trying desperately to make their way in a world that didn’t always…