Being who we are requires that we can talk openly about things that are important to us, that we take a clear position on where we stand on important emotional issues, and that we clarify the limits of what is acceptable and tolerable to us in a relationship.

If we only listened with the same passion that we feel about being heard.

Underground issues from one relationship or context invariably fuel our fires in another.

Self-help books for women are part of a multibillion-dollar industry, sensitively attuned to our insecurities and our purses.

Every time I open Facebook, I see a post with something like, "We must forgive or be prisoners of our own bitterness and hate." People think that forgiveness is all-or-nothing, but this myth hurts people. You can forgive 10, 97, or 14 percent. Forgiveness is complicated.

Feeling inadequate is an occupational hazard of motherhood.

Although the connections are not always obvious, personal change is inseparable from social and political change.