Learning to set boundaries with my mentally ill mother “Don’t you love me?” The lines around my mom’s eyes deepened, the confused pain engraved across her face. “Then why won’t you live with me?” she asked. “I don’t understand.” “Yes, mom, I do love you,” I said. But I just […]
When I heard this week that Robin Williams had taken his own life I was devastated. But I was also completely unsurprised. The death of a celebrity can be a touchy subject; many use the opportunity to rail against the injustice that we care so much about one person’s death while […]
What is the best strategy for continuing a conversation when the other person clearly knows who you are but you can’t remember anything about this person — or why you should know him or her — for the life of you? Lydia (20, Waterloo, ON) Dear Lydia, One time I […]
I sat in her big purple chair. It was a Monday afternoon in 2011, and I would rather have been anywhere else. I looked down at my dangling feet. This stupid chair. As if people didn’t remind me enough about my height, now this chair is laughing at me. I […]
I used to wear my busyness like a boy scout wears his badges. I wanted other people to consider me a hard worker, versatile, and an all around good guy. And one merit badge wasn’t enough. I wanted an entire sash filled with buttons so I’d win the ultimate prize: […]
Ask me not what I have, but what I am. — (Heinrich Heine) Our world revolves around consumption. The average person, according to the marketing firm Yankelovich, sees as many as 5,000 ads a day. They’re messages about the things we should like, about the products that will make us […]