getting hitched, millennial-style

As our generation comes to the major life milestone of marriage, many of us have to accept the fact that the experience will be a truly unique one. The time of a bride's parents footing the bill is all but over (if you are a lucky one whose parents will help pay for your wedding,...

love effortlessly

I've never understood people who claim "love takes work". It doesn't, and it shouldn't. Margret Mead understood that when she said "Loving you is just like breathing, as effortless, and as lovely". I used to think falling in love was like jumping out of a plane; you get that feeling in your gut like you're...

imitation is the sincerest form of success

Everyone wants to be unique, so we try to do things to make us stand out. We all know how this works. Choose a style and look that's all your own, argue against the social norms and popular beliefs, or even make a lifestyle change that will set you apart from the masses. Anyone who...

a million junes: a book review

I have a membership to BOTM, and I recently chose, at random, the book A Million Junes by Emily Henry. The first thing I have to say is that Henry has her finger on the pulse of mental illness and the way one person's behavior can bless or damn an entire family. Yes, the magical...

living walden-style

Thoreau famously wrote, "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth". I grew up in the woods of central Michigan, keeping a list of wildlife I saw through my binoculars in the backyard. Though I loved the trees and space to roam barefoot like the pseudohippie I won't readily admit to being, I...

own your stubbornness

How did you imagine your life when you were five? How about at 10? 18? I have always wanted to write. Who cares if I make a lot of money off it, as long as I can go shopping at my favorite store on occasion without feeling guilty and pay all my bills? You see,...

the traveled path

Robert Frost can have his less traveled road. I’m more interested these days in trying to learn the potholes and solid yellow lines of the road society says I have to take. Go to college, get the six-figure salary, find love, get married, have children who grow up to be more successful than you...blah blah...