Blog

I have this idea. What if we could change the paradigm, that when women and children experience violence, they escape to a shelter? Women have been protecting and sheltering women and children from abuse in their own homes, for time ...
Read More >>

Talking about abuse is hard. While it was happening to me, I had no words for it. I didn’t grow up with abuse. I hadn’t seen anyone being abused. I didn’t even have the word abuse in my vocabulary. How ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, You must forgive to heal. Oh, how I disliked this declaration. It almost felt like an insult. I abhorred my X with every cell of my being. When I thought of him, my eyes narrowed and my mouth ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, I still live with regret. It doesn’t come around often, but when it does, wow does it ever call up sorrow and grief. Then comes the great purging. I get out my journal and write it down. It ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, The harassment and threats did not stop when I left my X. They only intensified. My daughter and I stayed with friends while I sorted out my next steps. My X cut off all food and money, and ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, My X was mean to his animals. He had two horses that mostly hung out and grazed in the pasture. He gave them the minimum amount of attention to not be considered neglectful. He moved their tether around ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, My X physically abused me and my child. This is a really hard part of my life to contend with, aside from the fact that it happened, and this is why – my mind rationalizes that we don’t ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, My X was the master of everything. He sold himself as a master gardener, even though he had no formal training, no degree or certificates, and could barely make ends meet with his business or within his own ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, In the beginning my X told me I was beautiful. He was a charmer. He liked to show me off to his male friends to make them jealous. Like I was his prize. He was twice my age ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, My X's power and control over me was subtle, until it wasn’t. At first he appointed my friends – women he had dated or were in his community. It felt loving and thoughtful. He didn’t want me to ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, At first I thought it was sweet. I'd driven to a friend's house and my X called moments after I arrived. He was checking that I got there safely. Then he wanted to know when I would be ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, My X believed he was as smart as any doctor. He had no medical schooling and had dropped out of college. Yet, he always knew better. He thought his hunches were bang on one hundred percent of the ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, I fell off a horse. I was pretty badly injured. I’d come crashing down onto a cement road, my ankle smashing against it. I was convinced that I’d broken a bone. I managed to get back home. My ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, I witnessed the first fight. It's not what you think. It was between my X and his daughter. She had come home from school, hot and cranky. He had forgot to pick her up, and she was mad ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, I walked in on my X showering with his preteen daughter. Naked. It seemed like I was witnessing a private and yet normal routine. He stood behind her lathering up shampoo on her scalp. A thing she was ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, My X shared a bed with his pre-teen daughter. I found this out after I moved in with him. We had picked her up from her mom's place and went out for dinner. Over bites of pizza, she ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, My X hated his ex-wife. If only that had been enough to signal to my inner self to stay away. But for me it wasn’t that unusual. My parents had divorced when I was nine. They argued on ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, I met my X at a street party in Hawaii. He singled me out in a crowd of hundreds. The first thing he said to me, before introducing himself, was that the previous guy I had been talking ...
Read More >>

Hello Loves, It takes a lot of bravery to stand up to someone you once loved, and tell them that your relationship is over, and you want out. It becomes an act of heroism when you’ve spent most of that ...
Read More >>