Road sign for Zzyzx Road

Story: Creepy Guy on Zzyzx Road

A couple weeks ago, I shared the first part of a story in my weekly Trauma Tip Tuesday newsletter. As promised, here’s the whole story. Enjoy!

Every Tuesday I share a tip for taming trauma and building resilience. If you’d like to receive it in your inbox, please subscribe above!

Imperfection Makes Pies (and Life!) Sweeter

Living on the Western Slope of Colorado, I’ve learned to mark the passage of time by what produce is available when.

Tender asparagus in the spring. Cherries in mid-summer. Sweet corn in late summer. Apples in the fall . . . . that sort of thing.

Granted, not much grows here in the winter! But even that season has its own hallmark — when the kitchen fills with the nutty warmth of baking acorn squash or simmering butternut squash soup, I know it’s winter.

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Every Tuesday I share a tip for taming trauma and building resilience. If you’d like to receive it in your inbox, please subscribe above!

Put on Your Fancy Pants and DANCE!

Fifteen years ago I had the great pleasure of leading a team of idealistic young AmeriCorps members in San Luis Obispo, California. We taught environmental education to middle and high school students, mostly through service projects, in-class presentations, and after-school … Read More

Every Tuesday I share a tip for taming trauma and building resilience. If you’d like to receive it in your inbox, please subscribe above!

The Day Dad Retired His Boogie Board

Ever since I was a little girl, my family would take an annual vacation to the California coast where relatives owned a beach house. One of my favorite all-time memories happened during one of those trips, not long after Mike … Read More

Every Tuesday I share a tip for taming trauma and building resilience. If you’d like to receive it in your inbox, please subscribe above!

Goodbye Home, Hello Home

MtLamborn_WhiteBuff
I dreamt of the White Buffalo on the side of Mt. Lamborn years before moving to Paonia. Coincidence? Or GODcident?!?

What does it mean to leave the place you’ve lived longer than anywhere else?

It means you’re leaving HOME.

But . . .

What does it mean to move back to the place where your parents and sister live, where you went to high school?

It means you’re returning HOME.

I’m a Brat (Military, That Is)

My father served in the Army for two decades. We moved every few years, from Pueblo, Colorado => Augusta, Georgia => a Marshall Island in the Pacific => Glendale, Arizona => Salt Lake City => Baumholder and Fulda in Germany => Manhattan, Kansas => Las Vegas.

As an adult, I couldn’t shake the moving bug. I attended college in Ft. Collins, Colorado, and then moved to Boulder to Denver and back to Boulder again where I met Mike. We moved to Denver together, and then San Luis Obispo and Santa Margarita in California. Then off we went to Cerro, New Mexico, and most recently to Paonia, where we’ve lived for the past eight years.

I have never lived anywhere for eight years! So of course Paonia feels like home. I was born in Pueblo, and always had an affinity for Colorado. When Mike and I left New Mexico and came back to Colorado, it truly felt like coming home. I thought I’d be here forever . . . .

But life is funny.

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Every Tuesday I share a tip for taming trauma and building resilience. If you’d like to receive it in your inbox, please subscribe above!

Are you David or Goliath?

Malcolm Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath, makes the case that successful innovators and entrepreneurs often experienced childhood losses or traumas. Dr. Emil “Jay” Freireich, inventor of modern chemo treatments for cancer, and President Barack Obama both lost their fathers at … Read More

Every Tuesday I share a tip for taming trauma and building resilience. If you’d like to receive it in your inbox, please subscribe above!

The Biggest March You Probably Never Heard About

Ten years ago, my partner, Mike, and I traveled to Washington, D.C., for the largest march in American history. But you probably never even heard about it. More than 1 million women and men marched on the Capitol in support … Read More

Every Tuesday I share a tip for taming trauma and building resilience. If you’d like to receive it in your inbox, please subscribe above!

The Payoff for Being Afraid

photo by Mike Maxwell
“Adventure is not outside [wo]man; it is within.” ― George Eliot
(photo by Mike Maxwell)
Recently a friend asked me what the payoff is for my “Shame Shit Storms.”

This is a painful and somewhat embarrassing question to answer.

Here’s what I came up with . . . My shame allows me to:

  • stay safely in my comfort zone, which allows me to
  • avoid being seen, which allows me to
  • escape being hurt.

Looking at this list makes me uncomfortable. How can it be? I like seeing myself as a strong and capable woman, not a fragile and frightened little girl!

But in my heart I know staying in my comfort zone means I don’t have to take a stand — for myself, for others, for love. If I’m shamed back into my little corner, I can bypass doing my inner work. I can give in unchallenged to my defeating beliefs that I am lazy and worthless. That I am broken beyond repair.

Ultimately, I can avoid taking responsibility for myself and my life.

Which is pretty fucking ironic considering I am the FOUNDER of the Church of Personal RESPONSIBILITY!

Read More

Every Tuesday I share a tip for taming trauma and building resilience. If you’d like to receive it in your inbox, please subscribe above!

Go Secular Students GO!

We’re excited to announce a special performance of our show at Colorado Mesa University! Come out to laugh and show your support for secular students in Grand Junction. “We’ve been looking for unique events to bring to campus in order … Read More

Every Tuesday I share a tip for taming trauma and building resilience. If you’d like to receive it in your inbox, please subscribe above!

We are the True Believers

Having faith in humanity is harder on some days than others. Like today. Walking up the sidewalk to my house, I noticed someone had cut the little bunch of tulips growing by my front porch. WTF? Obviously people do far … Read More

Every Tuesday I share a tip for taming trauma and building resilience. If you’d like to receive it in your inbox, please subscribe above!