Maybe we already have the answers we need — A few summers ago, I was down the beach with my daughter’s friends. One of the nine-year-old's was celebrating a birthday and they were all here to surf. …

How to be kinder… to yourself — I have three pieces of advice I like to give when I see other people struggling. Turns out, I wish I could apply it to all to myself, too. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Errrm, you shouldn’t be able to hear that The first piece of advice is around health. …

How do we get the balance back? — I lived in corporate purgatory in 2019. I worked three days a week at my corporate role, had one day to freelance and pretended to focus on my family for the remaining three days each week. In that last year of my job, a member of my team had an…

They said it wasn’t anything to worry about — One of my secret hobbies is catastrophizing. And I love dystopian books. I find them handy how-to guides. I’m a self-taught gardener in case supply chains collapse or supermarkets empty (even though that could never ever happen, right?). Between you and me, I’m a wannabe prepper who hasn’t come out…

How to pretend to learn more, earn more, and get more done — I’m the first to admit that life is a chaotic mess of winging parenthood, swinging from deadline to deadline, and clinging to acceptable housework standards. But I also think I achieve productivity levels well above the average person. How do I tap into this superpower? How do I achieve education…

Pssst, sometimes the idea of writing repels me — I had to learn how to write daily, like I was sinking into a too hot bath, little by little, until I was fully immersed in the deep, cleansing soak of a story. Because even though writing can give us independence, it holds me prisoner. It creates shackles that hamper…

A short story about a genie who niches — Ann considered the genie’s offer. One crime. No consequences. She remembered the hair-pulling, bra-pinging bullies from school. Was this her chance to hurt them? But the thought passed. She already won by not ending up like them. She’d moved forward with her dreams and made more of herself than people…

Yes, It Requires Lying — When we lived in Thailand, I worked for a company during a difficult time of upheaval. Months of coercion to turn sales upwards again felt like the equivalent of walking around with a knife held firm against my throat. …

A response to Roz Warren’s Writing Challenge — When I lived in Japan, I marveled at the school kids I taught, who from a young age, learned to ride unicycles. Lessons formed part of the curriculum and they followed each other around the school gym, doing coordinated figures of eights before I ever learned to say “Subarashii!” …