Your attachment style was formed long before your first crush. — It dawned on me the other day that I haven’t a single childhood memory of being held while crying. I’m sure it happened. I wasn’t raised by animals. There had to be at least one occasion when someone pulled me close and wiped my tears. …

I saw life fill the listless. My first concert was an outdoor music festival featuring several acts. But the only one I remember seeing that day was TLC. I remember them because I’d never seen anyone like them. …

Thus, it can not have me. — My grandmother always talked about her “ship coming in.” It would happen someday. She was certain. To support this belief, she enrolled in a local college after having 10 children and helping to raise several grandchildren, me and my younger brother included. She was the oldest student in all her…

It’s that time of summer when you notice the days getting shorter. You chase the light you feel slipping away. As though if you hold it, if you go out and appreciate the warmth of the sun on your skin, it might decide to stay. Every doing feels better when…

For love, Manti Te’o formed a long-term, long-distance relationship with a woman he’d never met and would never meet. The former University of Notre Dame football phenom and NFL linebacker claimed this woman as his girlfriend. He believed she suffered life-threatening injuries in a car crash that left her confined…

According to a sociologist and a writer. — Two women discussed marriage before a live audience of which I was a member. One a sociologist, the other a writer. But this wasn’t a talk on science or craft. They kind of stumbled onto the topic and fell into elation over a shared perspective. The sociologist asked the newlywed…

More than a verb. — Someone asked me how I learned to love myself. I shrugged like I always did and recited my typical rundown of books I’ve read and philosophies I’ve adopted that helped (and still help) me along my way. It would be a long while before I formed a definitive answer to…

He’s passing by the café a fourth time. The man riding a fancy-looking white motorcycle circles the block once again. This time, Al Green’s voice is blasting from his stereo. I look up from my seat outside the café when I hear “Love and Happiness… Something that’ll make you do…

Lessons are everywhere if we’re looking to learn. — The bathroom in a condo I was renting had the most awful shower head. It came with three settings: bearable, rip your skin off water pressure, and barely a drizzle. I chose the bearable setting most days. …