Mind Reading

Annapolis, Maryland. 1975-ish. Just after a rain. I was maybe four years old, riding my bike around our dirt driveway in the woods. My training wheels got stuck in the mud and I found myself on a stationary bike, my back wheel spinning an inch above the muck without moving me forward. I felt it beg…

Please go to itslikethis.substack.com for a full transcript and links. Back in the early days of the pandemic, someone said that one way to protect your mental health when the world outside is off the rails is to find a little corner of your life and control the heck out of it. Straighten a junk dr…

I lost my composure during a guided meditation on equanimity. Yeah. Equanimity—that steadiness of mind and composure in response to any situation? Well, I’m not a skilled meditator. But at least no one else on the call could see or hear me! In this guided session we were prompted to bring to mind s…

I wish this story was about an uneventful afternoon a few years ago when my then-teenaged son and I were home alone while my husband was out of town for the weekend. I wish I could tell you my son was watching one of his Pixar movies in the living room and I came down the carpeted stairs with absol…