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This is Between Business Cards
I’m navigating life—one foot stuck in the mud, the other trying to pull free. Like you, I’ve held a lot of roles: sibling, employee, spouse, healthy person and one facing illness. Some of those titles even made it onto my business cards. But life has a way of editing our identities—whether we’re ready or not. Over time, my roles changed. I was divorced. My parents passed. I experienced painful estrangements and major illness. And through it all—showing up, struggling, transitioning—I found unexpected lifelines: family, friends, books, projects and small, quiet gestures that kept me afloat. This isn’t a self-help blog. It’s more of a help-yourself-while-I-stumble-through blog. It’s about the collective…
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Nothing But Net
The ball hit the rim. Stopped. And teetered. A hero would be made — or not — depending on which way it fell. My high school phys ed teacher, Ms. Carter, coached all the girls’ teams. She was tall and lean; black-rimmed glasses framed her angular face. Her silky brunette hair bounced as she strode around the gym, slightly pigeon-toed. Wanting to strengthen my college admission application, I had signed up for the girls’ basketball team. Tryouts started. About twenty girls gathered on the smooth wooden bleachers in the high school gymnasium. Ms. Carter marched from her office, sneakers squeaking as she crossed the floor, and planted herself in front…
