“I can’t ever imagine my life without this overwhelming pain,” I managed to choke out between my sobs to my counselor. It had been about three months after my divorce was filed, and I was overwhelmed with grief. I believed the rest of my life was going to be filled with the intense emotional pain […]
“I just want you to know how impressed I am with how well the girls are doing,” my former father-in-law said sincerely as he was handing me their luggage. I had met at a halfway point to pick the girls up from a weekend spent with their grandparents. I must admit that I was surprised […]
Everyday is an opportunity: an opportunity to try again, an opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life, an opportunity to make an improvement in your life. Seize those opportunities every chance you can. It is so easy to live in the pain of yesterday, or be overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the future, that you can […]
It was the day my divorce was filed and I remember dropping to my knees and yelling out to God, “Make this madness stop!” I could not believe this was actually happening. No sooner had the words left my mouth when a feeling of extreme doubt filled me. Questions flooded my mind. What if there […]
During a recent all-day workshop, I had repeated often my view that if one had to go through a divorce, it was a blessing to be Catholic. My point was that our Catholic faith offers so much hope and healing, particularly through the Sacraments, that to have to go through a divorce without them makes the […]
When my divorce hit, it was as if I was run over by a freight train. I hardly knew what hit me. I was confused, disoriented, and could barely think long enough to decide what color socks to wear. It was that bad. My instinctual reaction was to turn to God. That was good. However, […]
Recently, I was speaking to a group on the virtue of chastity. A highly charged topic, for sure. One woman raised her hand and offered that what she was most afraid of was being alone the rest of her life. She felt she was in a Catch-22 of sorts. She was afraid that if she committed to […]
Recently, I was on a flight to New York. I was sitting in an aisle seat. The middle seat was empty, and a young woman was sitting in the window seat. She caught my attention because she was what I would call “edgy.” She was dressed very flashy, had a purple streak dyed into her […]
I leaned back in my chair and looked with great satisfaction upon the single sheet of paper lying on my desk. It was my detailed plan for the year. Every goal was neatly and concisely described and categorized based on my personal, spiritual and work roles. It was all there. The master plan for how […]
I once heard a woman lamenting about her “shelf life”. I had never heard that expression before and I asked her to explain. She said that men find women less attractive as women get older. Therefore, women have a limited time in which to find a suitable mate. If they get too old, they will […]