Returnings

Today is the Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. I’ve been looking forward to this day, basically since the autumn equinox.

Finding the right therapist is hard, finding the right therapist who will take your insurance is harder.

One year ago, I sent out my first Returnings letter to about a dozen people. In many ways, it seems like no time has passed at all. In others, it feels like a lifetime ago.

It’s a place for slow weekends, not blurry 48-hour visits, which is how my trips to the Midwest seem to go. But the weekend was too much, too fast, and I needed to both cure my hangover and slow down. So we went to get coffee.

Comedic Timing features women both in front of and behind the camera. The cast stars women of diverse ages and backgrounds, was created and written by female writers and is dedicated to hiring an inclusive crew. Supporting this series is supporting women in comedy!

Listen to your body. I hear these words in a tone of exasperation, always in my mother's voice, real or imagined. I roll my eyes, but my mother’s intuition can be frightening in its accuracy. She knows that the body has told me all I need to know about myself. Growing up, I could hear it, but I prided myself in ignoring it. I paid for it dearly.

Where is your clever honesty? Your compassionate honesty? Your insightful honesty? Uplifting? Poetic? Empowering? —Quinn Murphy

I get this notification on my phone five times a day. It pops up when I’m scrolling through Instagram, eating lunch, or during a yoga class. They come in randomly, sometimes only an hour or so apart.