Passages

A New Year’s Writing Tradition

January 1, 2012
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There’s something about the end of one year and the beginning of the next that invites review and reflection. Without this calendar marker, it’s really just another day—but, for me, January 1 always feels momentous. It’s like drawing a line in the sands of time between the past and the present: whatever happened in the [...]

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Journal Writing Through Life’s Passages: Moving

April 13, 2011
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I had been packing for weeks. The boxes were clearly labeled with their contents and which room they belonged in. Yet when the moving van arrived, every surface overflowed with items that still needed to be boxed, the pictures hung on the walls, and the still-full garage mocked us. Luckily, we were only moving a [...]

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Journal Writing Through Life’s Passages: Deciding to Start a Family

January 25, 2011
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WHETHER or not to start a family has never been a simple decision, but it’s more complicated today that it has ever been. If you’re facing this decision, journaling about it can help you gain clarity by sorting out the emotional and practical aspects of what it means for you personally. When I married at [...]

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Journal Writing Through Life’s Passages: Adolescence

October 5, 2010
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WHETHER you are a teenager or living with one, adolescence is no easy road to traverse. It’s is a time of confusion for everyone involved, including siblings. But journal writing can help. How exactly? Here are three valuable ways that journal writing can support you during this phase of life, as well as journaling prompts for teens, siblings, and adults.

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Fan Wavers International

May 18, 2010
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YOU CAN ALWAYS spot women who are going through menopause by our fans, which we pull out of purses or coat pockets, unfurl, and wave wildly in the general direction of our faces. The low-tech, folding variety haven’t been in popular use in the States since the early 20th century, and a woman with a [...]

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New Year’s Traditions

January 1, 2010

OUR LIVES ARE MARKED by months, seasons, and years. To celebrate these turning points and rites of passage, we’ve created traditions and formal rituals. We celebrate birthdays, religious holidays, weddings, and graduation from kindergarten, high school and college. We memorialize those we love through funeral services. And every year, at the end of the old [...]

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The Secret to Coping with Change

November 21, 2008

There’s an old saying: “The only constant in life is change.” If that’s true, and I believe it is, you’d think that we’d all be quite comfortable living our lives in the midst of a changing world. Yet, mention the word “change,” and people get worried. Even when we seek change — in government, in [...]

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