Friendship

During your spouse's deployment, you have to really dig deep for strength. You claw away at yourself to find another ounce of courage, patience, resiliency. You make a lot of decisions – you do a lot; all on your...

One in five Americans – more than 54 million people– have a physical, sensory, or intellectual disability. This makes the disabled community the largest and most diverse minority group in the country. Yet when it comes to talking about...

Snail Mail Still Matters I am entrenched in our on-demand, instant gratification world of communication. Landline phones and calling cards seem so outdated that it’s hard to imagine I once saved babysitting money to buy a 500 minute calling card...

There I was enjoying a nice, relaxing shower. The kids were sleeping, the clothes were folded, and the floors were actually mopped hence I was enjoying a 10 minute shower instead of the typical hurried five minute one. Suddenly,...

As you may know, I am a bit new to this whole military thing. What’s more, my spouse joined service in our later years of life. All that to say, in our civilian life, we didn't recognize the value...

Shortly after my twin boys turned one, I was diagnosed with a life-changing chronic illness called pulmonary hypertension. As a then-28-year-old, first-time mom and military wife, living across the country from our family and friends, I had no idea what...

Every time I move, like a lot of you, I find it challenging to make new friends. I like to keep in touch with the friends I’ve made, but I also know that I need to make a few...

These days, the first thing anyone asks me is, “Are you ready for the move?” We’re PCSing in six weeks. I should be deep in preparations--cleaning, decluttering, saying goodbye. But the truth is, I’m hardly thinking about it. That isn’t to...

Sometimes it feels like I have best friends who don’t know I exist. I put in the time to see them, listen to the stories they tell, and send them messages to let them know I care. Historically, these...

Sometimes a trip to the playground is a frustrating exercise in attempted adult conversation. Other times, you get some truth bombs laid out that resonates with you long after the afternoon is over.  Just a week before Thanksgiving this year,...

"You're really hard on her," my friend told me. I knew it was true, and I knew it was awful.   This was almost four years ago, and I can recall it as clearly as the block of cheese I...

It's hard for me to write this. Nearly 18 months have passed, and the grief still feels fresh. Almost a year and a half ago, my best friend Amy died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism. At the time, she...