Image credit: Photo by onkel_wart on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons Sometimes my subconscious likes to be really mysterious in its messages to me (so, why, exactly, did a frog hop on the big pink bubble gum bubble I was blowing?). Sometimes it likes to tell jokes. Sometimes it (like many a subconscious) likes to [...]
Posts under ‘people pleasing’
Sharing the Silence
Image credit: Art by zedzap on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons Like many people, I walked into my first 12 Step meeting never expecting to wind up there, with no clue what to expect other than what Hollywood had taught me (which I soon learned was nothing accurate). The meetings I first started attending were [...]
Asking for What I Need
Image credit: Photo by c@rljones on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons Earlier this week, I had a rough morning with my daughter, my son was sick, I had an IEP meeting scheduled (those of you who don't know what that is, be glad you don't) and on top of it all, I couldn't find a [...]
Opening Up
Image credit: Photo by casch52 on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons This week I plan to tell one of my best and oldest friends about my husband's addiction after nearly six years of silence around it. I've wanted to let her in to this part of my life, because keeping her out -- keeping anyone [...]
On the Golden Gate Bridge
Image credit: Photo by serdir (at home) on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons I suspect crossing the Golden Gate Bridge must get tiresome for the folks who commute across it each day -- the traffic, the fog, the monotony of routine -- but I am not one of those people. I was in the San [...]
Learning to Say No
I am getting better at saying no, when I mean no, but it's still an area where I have a lot of work to do. Saying "yes" to requests is like a reflex to me. Tap my knee and my foot bounces up, ask me for help and I say, "Yes." Oops. Wait. Let me [...]
My Daughter is Not Me
Image credit: Photo by igorms on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons When my kids were infants, the hard work of parenting was mostly physical: dealing with extreme sleep deprivation, lugging babies and their gear around, changing diapers, keeping dangerous objects out of reach. But the older the kids get, the more the work shifts to [...]
What Are You Thinking?
Image credit: Photo by gutter on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons I was recently reading a book on Buddhism and the Twelve Steps that describes a meditation exercise in which you label your thoughts: "desire," "aversion," "thinking." The author mentioned one woman who was surprised at how much of her thinking centered on desire: I [...]
Other People Have Higher Powers Too
Image credit: Photo by Tonyç on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons My husband and I go out regularly without our children, but until recently we had never been away overnight. Difficulties with sleep are common among children with autism, and my son has only just (at age seven) settled into something like a reliable sleep [...]
Teaching Myself to Parent in Recovery
Image credit: Photo by Laura Burlton on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons When my daughter was about a year old -- not yet able to talk or to walk across a room without plopping on her bottom -- I was out grocery shopping with her. By the end of the (too long) trip, she was [...]
