Archive | boundaries RSS feed for this section

My bodily autonomy?!

Former Vice President Pence wants to implement a nationwide ban on abortion and to continue the fight “to restrict bodily autonomy.” Bodily autonomy is “the right to governance over one’s own body.” Yikes! Former Vice President Pence has no right to restrict my bodily autonomy—or the bodily autonomy of any woman. –Joy

Read full story Comments Off on My bodily autonomy?!

A joyful resting place

We long to be at home in the world, Norman Wirzba once wrote. “Our failure—as evidenced in flights to virtual worlds and the growing reliance on ‘life enhancing’ drugs, antidepressants, antacids and stress management techniques—suggests a pervasive unwillingness or inability to make this world a home, to find our places and communities, our bodies and […]

Read full story Comments { 31 }

No news—for a few days

Recently, before we left for Arkansas, I declared a ban on news. I didn’t want to hear anything about what was happening in Washington. But, news today seeps through our cell phones, and a complete ban was impossible. Still, it was refreshing to avoid the blare of news hounding me constantly from newspapers, radio and […]

Read full story Comments Off on No news—for a few days

In the world

“Most people are on the world, not in it,” John Muir once said.

Read full story Comments { 1 }

The distracted adult syndrome

Too much screen time is bad for children, says Dr. Nicolas Kardaras, author of Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction is Hijacking Our Kids—and How to Break the Trance. In fact, Dr. Kardaras concludes, that brain imaging studies show that excessive screen exposure can damage a young person’s developing brain in the same way that cocaine […]

Read full story Comments { 2,674 }

How did I build better boundaries?

I wish I had a simple answer. I don’t. For most of life’s big issues, there are simple answers that provide a glimpse of the truth. And, then, there are long answers that reveal the truth. I built better boundaries by getting to know myself, figuring out who I was and what I wanted to […]

Read full story Comments Off on How did I build better boundaries?

What I learned about boundaries

When I was a child, we ate a farm breakfast before we rushed out of the house to catch the school bus—eggs and bacon or sometimes biscuits and gravy. At the same time that my brothers and I were climbing into the school bus, my parents were leaving the house and starting their daily chores. […]

Read full story Comments Off on What I learned about boundaries

Do you have good boundaries?

Many women  come to me for counseling because they have bad boundaries. Some of them didn’t develop good boundaries as the result of physical abuse when they were children. They may have had parents who hit them, slapped them or said mean things to them. Even women who were never abused often are encouraged to […]

Read full story Comments Off on Do you have good boundaries?

Complain carefully

Julie, a woman who has developed good boundaries, knows that it’s healthy to confide in a close friend about problems she’s having with her supervisor at work. Talking to someone about how she feels about a colleague who was given a promotion that she thinks she deserves helps diffuse her anger. It also might help […]

Read full story Comments { 2 }

What’s required?

I explained to Mary Elizabeth, my college-student daughter, that her dad and I were going to a Sunday School brunch and then church services on Easter Sunday. “You’re welcome to come with us,” I told her. “Am I required to go?” she asked. I paused a moment and then smiled. “We would like for you […]

Read full story Comments Off on What’s required?