I used to be the person everyone described as "nice." Not kind. Nice. There's a difference, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to understand it. Kind people consider your feelings. Nice people are terrified of them. Kind people sometimes tell you things you don't want to hear ...Read More
Robert sat in his driveway at 9:30 on a Tuesday morning, staring at his garage door. He'd been sitting there for twenty minutes. His wife had asked if he was okay when he said he was "going out for a bit." But he had nowhere to go. Nothing to do. No reason to ...Read More
For years, I tried to learn mindfulness the way I thought you were supposed to. I did the courses, followed the guided meditations, and practiced bringing my attention back to the present moment. I understood the idea of it. But if I’m honest, it always felt like something ...Read More
Most people, when they think about what makes someone "the one," think about intensity. The electric first conversation. The way your stomach drops when they walk in. The feeling that something has shifted in the room. We've built an entire cultural vocabulary around this kind of attraction: chemistry, ...Read More
There's a quiet judgment reserved for people who spend a lot of time alone. It's rarely spoken directly, but it's embedded in the questions people ask. "Are you okay?" "Don't you get lonely?" "You should really get out more." The underlying assumption is always the same: if you ...Read More
There's a version of this experience that people talk about openly. Loneliness. The ache of wanting connection and not having it. It gets written about constantly. There are TED talks, bestselling books, public health campaigns. Loneliness is legible. People understand it. But there's a stage that comes after loneliness ...Read More