The ocean is badass. I’m mesmerized by the sun glowing through the turquoise and emerald waves, and the white frosting precarious on the tip of each as they roll in. The extent to which the tide comes so close and then can be so very far away in just a few hours is astonishing. I’m on my annual trip to the Oregon coast. It’s my happy place. I finally find the little beachy bed and breakfast where I’m scheduled to stay. As I untangle myself from the knees-up-my-nose sized rental car, a puffy ...read more
Therapy Dog with a Blog
HI! My name’s Oliver. Everyone calls me Ollie. I’m a therapy dog. Well, I’m training to be a therapy dog. My job is to help people who are sad or afraid. You can pet me or I can just sit near you when you talk to my mom. I really like meeting new people. Mostly big people. Little kids kind of scare me, but I’m learning to be braver. Lots of people who come to see my mom are scared, too. Sometimes they are sad or mad. It’s ok though, because my mom likes to help. She told me lots of ...read more
Crazy is Easier
When clients first visit with me they often ask, “Am I crazy?” They are asking the question in all seriousness. They’ll tell me more of their story and ask again, “Am I crazy? You’d tell me, right?” For some, the question is asked because the choices they’ve made seem utterly unreasonable. The things they’ve done to themselves seem outrageous and irrational. For others, the things that have been done to them are truly unbelievable. My response over and over is, “You’re not crazy, you’re ...read more
Are You Close Enough?
The mountain was left scorched and exposed after a forest fire devastated the west side of Colorado Springs. At the time, it was the most destructive in Colorado history. Waldo Canyon and the surrounding area was once a plush green terrain of evergreens, scrub oak, and wildflowers. In the course of a week, over 18,000 acres of it were brought to nothing. Just charred remnants of old tree trunks and back ash covered rocks. There are pictures taken just days after the fire, and it's hard to ...read more
Blood, Fire, Lemons, and Disproportionate Pain
It's a stunning Sunday morning in Colorado. I have a roast ready to be slapped in the crock pot, bread dough ready to bake, lettuce rinsing in the strainer, and am juicing a bundle of lemons for lemonade. The next thing I know, I'm sitting on the kitchen floor sobbing all the way to the obnoxious cry. It all started so innocently. I bumped a lemon. Just accidentally rolled a lemon across the counter. As I went to grab the lemon, I snagged the roast still in its butcher paper and flung it ...read more