Some women get erased a little at a time, some all at once. Some reappear. Every woman who appears wrestles with the forces that would…

“It’s not what you look at that matters. It’s what you see.” — Thoreau Buddhist teachings invite us to accept suffering as foundational to human existence. But sometimes it’s easier to acknowledge other people’s pain than our own. …

“Pathmaker, there is no path. You make the path by walking. By walking, you make the path. ” — ANTONIO MACHADO At the end of 2017, I made a promise to myself that I would join a conversation I’ve been listening to for 30 years, a conversation between writers who…

The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself. — RITA MAE BROWN I have been watching The Handmaid’s Tale. Even if (especially if) you’ve read the 1985 book by Margaret Atwood, I encourage you to give the series a try. Because this creation is more than speculative…

Perhaps, after all, we shouldn’t take our lives so personally, shouldn’t think of them as the monologue of busy and insistent and separate selves. …

What I Learned Pole Dancing For the past few months, I’ve been training with a woman we call J. She’s an accomplished athlete, dancer, performer and business owner, and every time I see her, she pushes me out of my comfort zone. Last fall, I agreed to dance burlesque and…

Gayle died when we were fourteen. We were roommates in the Hematology/Oncology ward in Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles the spring of our thirteenth year, both theoretically in the eighth grade, though neither of us actually went to school. We kept up a constant chatter about blood counts and needle…