Two weeks ago, as I prepared for a four-day Nature Immersion (camping and spending every precious, sun-drenched moment outside), I had one of the worst, most excruciating headaches that I’d had in years. In fact, the past month has seen me with a prolonged migraine every week and without adequate medicine.

As I went through this torture and missed self-imposed writing deadlines, I kept close in my heart that I needed to send out a gratitude-drenched letter of appreciation to my readers on Medium.

It kind of sounds strange, once I type it out: “my readers.” The main thing is…

In the aftermath of being wronged, forgiveness can seem like an elusive, almost fantastical notion. Whether facing infidelity in a relationship, betrayal by a friend, or any other type of pain from the past, it can feel unfair that we have to do the work to find forgiveness and move past it.

And even though it is supremely difficult, it is entirely possible.

Here’s how to start.

First, you feel the aching sting, the shame, and the ever-present pain of holding on to the past. …

Sickness is the dreaded life immobilizer that begs us to slow down and take better care. I’ve been sick this week (still am), and in the absence of COVID testing, because I’m too sick to drive 30 minutes into town for a test, I’ve chosen to self-isolate. I know that I don’t want others to catch whatever this is, COVID or not, so I am staying put.

My husband had the sickness first, and when I found him napping on the couch at 4 pm on a Saturday, I knew this was the dreaded winter sickness having its last hurrah…

Wisdom takes a multitude of forms. And as the ancient philosopher Socrates wisely said, “What do I know? All I know is that I don’t know.” Indeed, profound words truly the more we know, the more we realize that we still don’t.

How can we live wiser in our inner worlds while also aspiring to pass that knowledge on to the collective?

Many would say that knowledge only becomes wisdom when it changes the recipient so wholly that their entire approach to life shifts around it. …

The more you know, the less you truly understand. Interesting, isn’t it?

Life is heartbreakingly beautiful in its intriguing mysteriousness and with an infinite number of lessons to teach us. The school of life has the capacity to both inspire and motivate us.

Below are three essential life lessons, and since we are all made of the same stuff, these lessons can apply to all of us, at any age and at any stage— wherever we are right now.

Each of these ideas is like a stem of understanding, seemingly one thing with one purpose, but when we investigate further…

We live our lives through lessons, some harder than others, and life has a curious way of teaching us lessons that we would never learn otherwise, bathing us with all-subsuming wisdom. Many of life’s lessons we would rather skip over or fast-forward, but that is exactly what makes life such a terrific teacher.

And as the sun begins to set on my fourth decade and a new dawn arises in the fifth, I took some time to reflect on my many lessons learned while joyfully anticipating the lessons to come — and because I am an imperfect human being, there…

It’s a dark, cold morning when my pearly white iPhone starts to buzz. I don’t want to get out of bed, nor am I willing to leave the warm cocoon of the bedroom, with Roxie the dachshund nestled under my arm and everyone else in the house blissfully sleeping. Just a few more warm, precious, cozy minutes, I tell myself, before facing the coldness, the darkness, and the tiredness of the day.

But then, in the sparkling twilight between sleep and wake, I remembered this quote by stoic Marcus Aurelius: “When you arise in the morning, think of what a…

On a brilliant and almost blindingly sunny morning, we awoke to three inches of fresh crystalline snow blanketing our mountain landscape, gently weighing down the yearling trees that are spreading throughout the meadow. It was a day that would prove to be a vibrant celebration of nature in its apparent beauty and mysterious phenomena.

“More sledding!” my son shouted excitedly as he pressed his face against the icy window, the sun streaming in rippling waves above his white-blonde head.

My husband rushed in with firewood from this chilly start to the day. “Aurora, look!” he exclaimed. “Fresh fox tracks all…