Dear Pharmacists … (a letter from the disgruntled masses)

Dear Pharmacists, We see you standing there with your antiseptic smile. We smile back and hand you our prescriptions. We watch as your face distorts in front of us. The stigma of the prescribed medication takes over. Your face no longer has that fake smile, it is instead replaced with judgement. Before Read more

10 Love Songs that will Stop Your Heart

We all know the effect that music has over us. A song can lift our spirits or bring us to our knees with melancholy.  Much to the chagrin of my inner circle, I fantasize about the music career that I did not have. Fantasy carries me along with every lyric Read more

Escape from ISIS

They had been surrounded by ISIS for months. The siege continued to build as fighters managed to cut off water, electricity, and the flow of goods into the city. Residents of Qaraqosh, the largest Christian-majority city in Iraq, grew more and more tense living in the shadow of ISIS.Although Kurdish Read more

No One Taught Us How to Cope With the Business of Death

“I am a woman, phenomenally.  Phenomenal woman, that’s me.”  Maya Angelou Heather W, Mara, Melissa, Barb, Alison, Jennifer, Heather J, Mary, Jenny, Carrie. These are 10 women I’ve crossed paths with over the last 22 months who lost their husbands at a very young age, mostly unexpected. Some of these women Read more

10 Tips to Deal with Grownup “Mean Girl” Friends

“I’m sorry that people are so jealous of me. But I can’t help it that I’m popular.” ~Regina George This weekend I was in one of my favorite book haunts, Goodwill’s 50% off Saturday, and stumbled across a copy of Queen Bees and WannaBes, the inspiration for the great Tina Fey Read more

Why I am Afraid to Call Myself a Feminist

I’m a feminist, but I’m growing shy about saying that. I have a lot of friends who are survivors of abuse and sexual trauma. I spend a lot of time advocating for and supporting them and others like them. Many of these survivors demonstrate very deep trust in me. Because Read more

Chaotic Inspiration

A photograph, miraculously taken of a star’s birth, taken just when that star ripped itself from absolute chaos (near the constellation of Sagittarius, my birth sign) an undeniable thrill, this sign – a star born at my sign Scientists become poets, (a rich and powerful dichotomy) describing a supernova explosion Read more

The Tear

“Does your weakness show as your strength?” Rivka leans towards me from behind a scratched wooden desk in her office at Neve Yerushalayim Girls’ Seminary. The thin metal folding chair I’m sitting on creaks as I cross and uncross my nylon covered legs under my long blue skirt. It’s October, Read more