Escaping the Good Girl Trap
When I was young, my adoptive mom once announced in her Southern Mississippi drawl—and with lots of love—that she had one “store bought baby” (me) and one “homegrown baby” (Heather). …
In the Addiction and Rewiring My Brain
At just seventeen years old, Ally Rae Pesta was diagnosed with a complex eating disorder. In her memoir, Beyond My Body: Recovering from a Complex Eating Disorder, Reclaiming Movement, and …
An Angel Is Summoned
A car slammed into me from behind while I was waiting outside Denmo’s for the food I’d just ordered for my kids. The next thing I knew, I was inside …
How Ambitious Women Can Have Successful Careers and Happy Families
As a child absorbing the rules of the patriarchal society and coming to understand what the derogatory term “bitch” meant, I learned as a girl that I should never be …
Sex Education
I have always had orgasms—many orgasms daily—and I have loved to orgasm since I can remember. Even with two younger sisters and three years in between each of us, I …
Random Recreational Violence
In 2005 and 2006, serial shooters terrorized Phoenix, Arizona with drive-by, late night shootings of animals and people that these criminals called “random recreational violence.” On May 30, 2006, Clark …
Writing Your Way to Happiness
This guest blog is an excerpt from Dr. Peggy Doherty DeLong’s book, Feeling Good: Thirty-Five Ways to Happiness, Even During Tough Times. In Chapter 18, she explains how research shows that …
Surviving Online Dating Fraud
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which provides the public with a means of reporting internet-facilitated crimes, reports that when compared to other online crimes, romance scams result in …
My Deceitful Body
I went to the altar at Sherwood Baptist church frequently because the thought of being unholy terrified me. The church taught me that, if I died at any minute but …
Life Takes Another Turn
When Scott, my fiancé, got out of bed, I was expecting another luscious, lazy Sunday with the love of my life. But life took another turn. “Peggy, can you come …