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Continue reading →: Why Your New Year’s Intention Might Just Be “Stay Still”Every January, we’re bombarded with the same cultural script: New year, new you. Transform yourself. Set aggressive goals. Become unrecognizable by December. The wellness industry churns out planners, challenges, and transformation programs, all insisting that the only way forward is more—more productivity, more discipline, more optimization of every waking hour.…
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Continue reading →: When They Leave Without Saying WhyHave you ever tried to solve a puzzle when you know some of the pieces are missing? Not lost temporarily—just gone. Never coming back. That’s what it feels like when someone you loved walks away without explaining why. The silence they leave behind isn’t peaceful. It’s loud with questions. And…
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Continue reading →: When the Safety Net DisappearsHow to Navigate Life During the Shutdown You planned for emergencies. You had savings— maybe not much, but enough. You paid your bills on time, kept good credit, and did everything the “responsible adult” handbook told you to do. And then the government shut down, and suddenly all those careful…
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Continue reading →: The Wisdom of Kitchen TablesWhat Our Grandmothers Knew About Feeding a Family There’s a worn recipe card in my grandmother’s handwriting that simply says “Bean Soup – feeds 10.” No measurements, no cooking times, just an assumption that you’d know what to do. That whoever read this card would understand that feeding ten people…
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Continue reading →: Why Your Self-Care Routine is Exhausting YouThe performance of rest and what it costs us I used to think I was bad at resting. Not in the literal sense—I could sit on a couch with the best of them. However, the quality of my rest always felt inadequate, as if I were doing it wrong. I’d…
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Continue reading →: Economic Mobility in 21st Century LiteratureThere’s something disorienting about realizing the rules have changed in the middle of the game. For millions of Americans coming of age after 2008, this became a defining experience—graduating into a recession, watching “entry-level” jobs require years of experience, and discovering that doing everything “right” no longer guaranteed stability. The…
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Continue reading →: Recovery and Resilience in Women’s WritingThere’s a kind of honesty that comes after the worst has happened—when you’ve survived what you thought might kill you. It’s not the wisdom of greeting cards or the neat arc of Hollywood redemption stories. It’s messier, more complicated, and more real. This is the honesty that drives the most…
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Continue reading →: Understanding PTSD Narratives in LiteratureThere’s a moment in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” when the narrator stops mid-sentence, unable to continue describing a particular memory. The page seems to hold its breath. As readers, we feel that pause—the weight of what cannot be said, the story that refuses to be straightforward. When we…
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Continue reading →: Learning to Like Yourself (Not Just Love Yourself)The difference between self-acceptance and self-romance We’ve all been told we need to love ourselves more. Stand in front of the mirror and feel overwhelming affection for what you see. Write yourself love letters. Plan romantic dates with yourself. Feel the kind of warm, protective, “I would do anything for…
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Continue reading →: The Imposter in the MirrorWhy self-recognition feels impossible sometimes Have you ever looked in the mirror and felt like you were seeing a stranger? Not in the physical sense—thought that happens too—but in the deeper sense of not recognizing the person staring back at you. Like you’re wearing a life that doesn’t quite fit,…
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Kat McAdaragh 