We're eating a credit card's worth of plastic each week, our children's diets are seventy percent ultra-processed, and metabolic dysfunction is at the root of nearly every chronic illness plaguing Americans.
Read moreTen years after losing my brother Jim, I share the essay I wrote about him — a story woven through Durer's Praying Hands, our mother's legacy, and the mysterious power of prayer in the face of unbearable loss.
Read moreSchool closures, isolation, and upheaval have taken a steep toll on children's mental health. Experts say the key to helping kids through it rests with parents and caregivers.
Read moreMy brother Jim would be fifty-four today. We lost him to suicide seven years ago. It's up to those of us who've lost a beloved to be the hope.
Read moreBreastfeeding and postpartum mental health are deeply connected. When everything else went wrong after the birth of my first child, nursing proved an oasis.
Read moreIn one of the darkest weeks in U.S. history, light still crowds out the darkness — in armies of volunteers, transformed factories, and the simple pleasures of a slowed-down life.
Read moreOn World Mental Health Day, I reflect on losing my brother to suicide and my own battle with postpartum depression — and share an excerpt from my book on the perinatal mood disorders too many families face in silence.
Read moreNew federal guidelines say counseling interventions like cognitive behavioral therapy can prevent perinatal depression in high-risk women — a proactive step that could change the trajectory for families.
Read moreThe FDA has approved the first-ever drug made specifically for postpartum depression — but at more than 0,000, it raises urgent questions about access and whether PPD will finally be recognized as the unique illness it is.
Read moreRecurring nightmares are one of many under-covered topics in the postpartum world. A new Glamour article sheds light on why those terrifying images may actually signal a mother's deep bond with her baby.
Read moreKatie Stubblefield became the youngest person in U.S. history to receive a face transplant after a suicide attempt at eighteen — a brilliant reminder that God is still in the business of miracles.
Read moreMy debut book marks one year at market, with libraries in 37 states, a TopShelf Indie Book Award nomination, and updated covers — a testament to the power of shared stories as a key to healing.
Read moreSipping tea from my Kate Spade wedding china the morning after her death, I'm reminded: we owe it to ourselves and the rising generations not to write off suicide as selfish.
Read moreWhen Vogue magazine covers postpartum anxiety, it's progress. In a world frequently ashamed of mental illness, our words carry great weight — powerful enough to defuse the shame.
Read moreA complicated birth, dark intrusive thoughts, and the absence of my mom hurled me into a postpartum furnace — but like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, I was not alone in the fire.
Read moreAffliction breeds the strongest hope. We may not realize it while stuck in the mire, but it is there we build the strength that will one day bolster others.
Read moreLosing a baby is a tragedy that demands to be addressed. Grief is a lifelong process, but we have an amazing capacity for healing — to get stronger, rebuild, and help others along the way.
Read moreA trip to Philadelphia to promote my book brought me back to the high-intensity rhythm of the East Coast — and to the graves of founding fathers who first pulled mental illness from the fringes.
Read moreWe still treat suicide as a stain on someone's character rather than the public-health crisis it is. Four years after losing my brother, I've learned that talking is our strongest weapon against stigma.
Read moreParenthood is paradox from the beginning — miraculous and grueling. When postpartum illness strikes, story and shared suffering become our most powerful antidotes.
Read moreA letter to my brother on the third anniversary of his death — because depression may have won by human standards, but not by God's.
Read moreI scheduled my preventative double mastectomy in September to give that dreaded month a chance to redeem herself. She didn't disappoint.
Read moreAfter one too many MRI biopsies, I decided I wasn't taking another lap around that monstrous circle of hell. Cancer or not, I was finding a way out.
Read moreMotherless mothering is its own wilderness. Without my mom's roadmap, I've had to define motherhood for myself — and teach my children about a grandmother they'll never know.
Read moreSorrow isn't the enemy of joy — it's joy's fraternal twin. After my brother's suicide, I'm learning how to grieve well and live fully.
Read moreStigma chases those who've attempted suicide, those who grieve them, and even the professionals who treat them. Changing this starts with raising our voices.
Read moreA vivid dream of a lion, a psalm about protection, and a song called 'You Are, I Am' — God was speaking, even when I thought he wasn't listening.
Read moreThe holidays after a suicide are a bitter cocktail of grief and expectation. Acting as if nothing happened doesn't help — but showing up does.
Read moreSix months of mammograms, biopsies, and fear led me back to the summer I watched my young mom die — and forward into taking charge of my own health.
Read moreLosing my mom as a teenager gave me coping skills I never expected to need again — until my brother took his life.
Read moreMy brother was my protector, my surrogate mom, my best friend. In his dying words, he entrusted me with the story of his broken heart.
Read moreLosing my brother to suicide tested my faith in ways I never imagined, but God is drawing glory from the mire — even when I can't see how.
Read moreTurning 40 was supposed to be a milestone I shared with my brother. Instead it's a bittersweet passage through deep sorrow and muted joy.
Read moreForgiveness after a suicide isn't forgetting — it's releasing the hurt to God, who can build something lovely from the ashes.
Read moreMy brother lost himself in a marriage that defined him, and the lies of worthlessness overwhelmed a man who never stopped extending grace.
Read moreThe guilt that stalks after a loved one's suicide is relentless — but in the space between sadness and hope, I'm learning to let light return.
Read moreCalling suicide selfish is ignorant and hurtful. My brother was in extreme pain, and he believed his children would suffer less without him. That is not cowardice — it is a desperate, human response to unbearable agony.
Read moreI walked 39.3 miles through Chicago in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer — pushing back, for the first time physically, against the disease that stole my mom.
Read moreI was unqualified for motherhood — a motherless overachiever with more trust in her resume than in God. But he continually chooses the most unqualified to bear his glory.
Read moreGeneration X children of divorce carry a broken leading edge — spiritual stories shaped by loss. But God can take a generation's fractured faith and turn it into something glorious.
Read moreMy parents' divorce didn't just split a household — it snuffed out part of my existence. Thirty years later, I'm still untangling what it means to have your being divided between two worlds.
Read moreMotherhood has a way of magnifying every inadequacy. I'm learning to celebrate the gifts God gave me instead of drowning in guilt over the woman I'm not.
Read moreThe brutal gang rape in New Delhi forced me to confront my own mother's story and the uncomfortable truth that the objectification and assault of women is far from a thing of the past.
Read moreDeep friendships between women are rare, life-giving, and sometimes frightening. As my best friend moves across the country, I explore why female intimacy matters — and why so many women avoid it.
Read moreMothering two young children has dulled my once-sharp mind and stalled my writing career. But chasing perfection is the real enemy — and God is bigger than the zombie zone of early motherhood.
Read moreOn my son's third birthday, I returned to the Chicago neighborhood where he was born and reflected on how motherhood dismantled my old life — and slowly built a new one.
Read moreWe chase balance like a unicorn we'll never catch. What new mothers really need is rhythm — a grace-filled way of moving through each unbalanced season of life.
Read moreA press secretary and mother of two young girls shares the daily struggle of being perpetually on call — at work and at home — and wishing for more time to simply enjoy her children.
Read moreAfter 13 years at home with four children, my cousin Laura has found that the biggest emotional hurdle of stay-at-home motherhood isn't identity — it's the strain on her marriage.
Read moreWhen my friend Laura left her high-powered law career to stay home, she lost the identity she'd spent years building — and discovered a richer, more expansive definition of herself.
Read moreA full-time teacher and mother of two reflects on the guilt that shadows every school event she misses — and how volunteering in her sons' classrooms is the only time she feels like a real mom.
Read moreA highly educated generation of mothers has more choices than ever — and more stress. The emerging wisdom: you can have it all, just not all at once.
Read moreThe identity shift from career woman to new mother felt like a door slamming shut on my old life. It took time — and faith — to discover that where I was didn't have to define who I am.
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