Pre P.S. Join me for The Divination Well this Sunday 9/27 at noon ET. Our theme this month is Mirror, Mirror. Dear Reader, I used to feel so scared every time I published this newsletter. I remember wishing I could magically cast a spell so certain people would never, ever see it. It wasn't that I had anything to hide. But I was afraid the me on the page wouldn't match the woman they'd already decided I was. I wonder if this sounds familiar? Not the newsletter exactly, but the spell: the wish...
7 days ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, Whether it's delivering keynotes, making a perfect French omelette, or staging furniture in a room — you can be really, really good at things that don't bring you more fully alive. And that's a funny thing about being a woman in midlife, you get good at something, and then the getting-good becomes a trap. When that happens, as Mark Nepo puts it, "we're asked to shed our gown of mastery in order to begin again." Staying alive in your own life means you can't keep hiding behind the...
14 days ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, When we started working together, my soul coach, Lianne, asked me the million dollar question: If time and resources were not a concern, what are the things you long to do? I promptly forgot my own answer. But then yesterday, I called her with BIG news — the kind worth popping something bubbly for. As we talked, she flipped through her notebook... all the way back to our very first call. Five years ago to the day! Here's what she read back to me: Coaching. Writing to women I know...
28 days ago • 1 min read
Dear Reader, I KNOW you’ve done the inner work. You can identify your inner critic and reach for your inner wisdom when you need it. Then a $40 late fee shows up — a box you were sure you'd checked — and something in you just caves. Maybe you publish something raw and stretchy on Substack. Or survive another one of your boss's spiraling monologues about the state of things. And instead of feeling proud of either, you're on the couch, staring at the ceiling, wondering what's wrong with you....
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
“ Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you insane your whole life. ~ Anne Lamott Ahh, midlife… when the epic realization hits that the relentless chase for "perfect" is digging you into yet another pit of comparison. You want out! Perfectionism be gone! And yet it creeps back in... When you're deep in a Pinterest rabbit hole searching for the "right" potluck recipe — one that'll impress everyone without costing you a hundred bucks and an afternoon...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader, The sleepytime tea is steeping. The open journal on your lap. A puzzle in progress. And yet, you still go to bed feeling... kind of blah. You don't have to hit a dramatic, collapse-on-the-floor kind of burnout to be soulfully dehydrated. You can be doing everything "right" and still not wake up feeling replenished. The overculture sells us a one-size-fits-all version of rest (looking at you, 8 hours of perfect sleep). What we actually need to refill our cups… well, that shifts...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Dear Reader, When I asked a friend the other day about her dreams, she looked at me like I'd asked her to recite a poem from memory. "I don't have time to think about my dreams," she said. I've been thinking about it ever since. Because it's not really about time, is it? It's about what we've been trained to consider a legitimate use of our attention. We live inside a culture that has colonized the things that should belong to us most intimately — how we sleep, how we eat, how we go for a...
2 months ago • 2 min read
"Rest and laughter are the most spiritual and subversive acts of all. Laugh, rest, slow down." — Anne Lamott Here's a question for you, Reader: what do you expect rest to do for you? I used to expect rest to feel like dessert — a reward for after the big win, for whenever I'd finally "earned" it. Last week, lake-deep with nowhere to be and nothing to do, I caught myself expecting the spaciousness to make things happen for me. Was I relaxing enough to access my intuition? Was I actually...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Support for women ripening into their second bite of life. Pre P.S. Today I'm hosting a workshop I think you'd love. We'll spend two hours making an altar together — a tangible space in your home for the part of you that keeps getting pushed to the back of the line. Two hours of using your heart and hands to express what your ego keeps interrupting. And a recording you can return to again and again. $24. Join me today for MORE OF YOU. Hi Reader, How’s your heart today? It's been a while since...
3 months ago • 3 min read