True abundance, legacy, and purpose live in life’s simplest moments Money was not abundant growing up, but I don’t really remember that impacting my childhood. In my adult life, I can now understand the sacrifice and effort it took to make me and my four siblings and feel like we…

Heartbreakingly beautiful lessons I learned about Brotherhood, presence, and love through tragic loss — “Well, this should be something,” I thought to myself on the plane. I was heading to Austin, TX with my somewhat-new-ten-years-younger boyfriend to stay in a house with a group of very-new-to-me-people, including AJ’s 6 closest fraternity brothers. Their group has a long distance friendship, and we were all meeting…

Empath. Hell of a teacher. Depressed. Too old. Loving Auntie + Godmother. Too sensitive. Anxious. Funny. Underdog seeker + supporter. Out of shape. Average. Life of the party. Kind. Too much. Intuitive. Weak. Procrastinator. Recovering people pleaser. Compassionate. Strong. Smart. Beautiful. Work in progress. These descriptors- these names I’ve called myself- can hold so much power. Some of these words have had…

“Auntie MK, want to build a sand sculpture gallery?” The answer is always yes. Children naturally practice presence and mindfulness in the most beautiful ways, giving transcendental meditators a run for their money. Thankfully, on this particular beach day, my mind let my niece’s imagination take me with her. I…

After reading Mari Andrew’s 100 things I know and doing some reflecting on the past 36 years of humaning, I was inspired to share some things I know. To be clear, by “things I know” I really mean “things that I have learned from life experience, therapy, friends, podcasts, Instagram…

A moment of sweetness sprinkled into the beautiful chaos of being an elementary school teacher I’ve heard teaching described as tap dancing. As an elementary school teacher, I can confirm that the tap dancing analogy checks out. …

Try these words when someone shares a hard thing — I often think about the hard-to-say-things that we are masking behind our “I’m-good-how-are-yous.” Think about the people in your life to whom you can share the real answer when they ask how you are. Those people are gold. Keep them close. They are dear to us. And it’s not because…

This is why Marathon Monday in Boston is the best day of the year. Some of my most formative childhood memories come from watching the Boston Marathon with my family. There were years of marveling at Dick Hoyt push his son, Rick, in his wheelchair. There was the year my…

I think Carrie Bradshaw was right about soulmates. My mother always says that her mother always said, “women need women.” I’m going to keep the tradition going: women need women. Three short words that could never do justice to the need that I’ve had for the women I’ve met in…