Crescent Lunge

What a Crescent Lunge Taught Me About Love

One Saturday morning in a yoga class, I rose into a crescent lunge and prepared to bend back, possibly far enough to peek at the wall behind me. “Sink into your hips, and build the pose,” my teacher instructed.  She explained how important it is to ground down in order to feel the energy rise up.  She stressed strength in the core as she told us to grow taller on the inhale and open our hearts as we exhaled.  (in yoga, as in life, “Inhale:  grow taller.  Exhale:  go deeper.)  “Don’t just jack your back,” she cautioned.  “You’ll hurt yourself.” […]

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What I Learned From My Favorite Ex

When I think about My Favorite Ex, I’m reminded of the quote from Jeff Brown: “You don’t measure love in time. You measure love in transformation.” When I was a senior in high school I dated the guy who would become My Favorite Ex. I continue to credit him with making me who I am.  Before Tripp, I was a good girl who didn’t question much about what I’d been taught:  get good grades, obey authority, don’t take drugs, don’t talk to strangers, etc. Tripp was different than anyone I’d hung out with before.  He went to a different, much larger, […]

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The Storm of Divorce

Today is a stormy day. All those smart weatherpeople use fancy words to describe what’s happening, but the gist of it is this: “This is a dark time. Things are gonna get ugly. Stuff is gonna get broken.”

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Divorce and the Talking Dog

The December before my parents got divorced, they adopted a puppy.  Dekker was my Christmas present, and I couldn’t have been happier.  I wanted him to sleep in bed with me, but he was too small to go up the stairs.  My parents didn’t want him on the furniture, so I slept on the living room floor to be with him overnight. As his puppiness progressed, he went from being a tiny and quiet ball of fur to an active and destructive young lad.  In the Spring, he dug and chewed the linoleum floor in the kitchen. “We might not […]

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Gina’s Diary: Dad’s Moving Out

When people ask, I tell them that “The D-Word” is not my personal story. And, that’s true. However, there are elements of it that were taken from my experiences throughout my parents’ divorce. Like Gina, I was also told of my father’s departure while on my way to what was supposed to be a fun summer vacation.

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