When I was little, my mom would go out a couple times a month to play bridge with a bunch of girlfriends at my godmother’s house. Though infrequent, I dreaded these outings. A worrier by nature, once the sun set I started to imagine worst-case scenarios. What if she got in an accident on the [...]
Dear Sibyl, My father was abusive to me growing up. Not very frequently was the abuse physical (the verbal variety dominated), but it was enough to instill a fear of him into me that I’ve never been able to shake. When he got angry, he took it out on me, I assume because I was [...]
This week I’m celebrating a birthday, my 30th birthday in fact. I long ago discarded the idea that I should be at a certain pinnacle or milestone by a particular age; I remember vividly watching the Olympics, and seeing teenager after teenager accomplishing ‘what they had worked their entire lives’ for, and a little voice in [...]
Dearest Clara, Last week, I started to think about the lessons and wisdoms that I have learned over the years from my mentors and colleagues when it comes to work and the workplace. But soon I was also thinking of lessons I learned more broadly there as well. These have served me well as I [...]
In our ruggedly individualistic culture, I often wonder: what is it like to be famous because of the person you’re married to? To appear in the press, go down in history books, as “so-and-so’s wife”—to never, ever be mentioned without your spouse as starting point or explanation? In some ways, I think it must be [...]
When I fall in love with a man, I fall in love with the place connected to his heart by one red thread, anchored with a map pin. And being there in that city, or usually that small town (a place which no one has heard of—so, he says he’s from the nearby city that other [...]
We are moving soon (more on that later) and we pulled everything out of the attic the other day. We have toys stored there that my parents saved from when I was a little kid. I have boxes upon boxes of my old dolls and an unfinished dollhouse, and then we have a massive collection [...]
Dear Sibyl, I’m going wedding dress shopping with my mother tomorrow. I didn’t really want to go and still feel ambivalent about it. My mother can be a loving, generous, supportive person. However, her insecurities can easily and unexpectedly be triggered, turning her into the Witch of the West. She can be mean and offensive [...]
