From Emotional Inheritance to Everyday Life

Earlier this year I spent several months writing about mothers, daughters, and the quiet inheritance of emotional life. I thought I was writing about family patterns. Looking back, I can see I was really writing about something much larger.

Since then, my essays have wandered into caregiving, friendship, the nervous system, identity, mutuality, presence, and the quiet ways many women learn to disappear inside the needs of others. Again and again, the same question keeps returning:

How do we come home to ourselves while still loving the people who need us?

I don’t write to offer easy answers. I write because life keeps inviting me to understand it more deeply—and perhaps those reflections help others understand their own lives as well. If you’d like to explore these themes further, here are a few of the essays readers have returned to most often.

• The Difference Between Being Needed and Being Nourished
• The Weight of Staying Connected
• The Colors We Leave Behind (or Where Did Our Colors Go?)
• What We Bring
• When We Listen

If you’re new here, I’ve gathered many of these reflections on Substack, where I publish each Tuesday morning. I’d love to have you join me there.