Those of you who know me, know that before counseling, before Acupuncture and TCM, I was an English teacher. For over ten years, I taught secondary and post-secondary literature. One of the more joyful lessons – at least for me – involved interpreting with my students the writings of Henry David Thoreau. It didn’t matter what grade I was teaching, […]
If Olympic medals were given for overthinking, I would definitely win the gold. In truth, I overthink my overthinking. I overthink texts and emails – wondering if I missed something, wondering what they may have meant, wondering if I miss-spoke, or miss-typed. I can overthink so much I paralyze myself into some alien frozen state. A recent post on notsalmon.com […]
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition that affects all people of all ages in all walks of life. OCD “occurs when a person gets caught up in a cycle of obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are unwanted, intrusive thoughts, images or urges that trigger intensely distressing feelings. Compulsions are behaviors an individual engages in to attempt to get […]
By Susan Tretakis – For me and many others, next Tuesday is Yom Kippur. In English, Yom Kippur means “the Day of Atonement” and is considered the most important holiday in the Jewish faith. Yom Kippur marks the end of the 10 Days of Awe, a period of introspection and repentance that follows Rosh Hashanah. “It is believed that those […]
The irony of writing this nearly one year after Hurricane Irma pounded South Florida while the media reports on Hurricane Florence bearing down on close friends in South and North Carolina is not lost on me. I used to say that Hurricane Wilma in 2007 gave me an enhanced respect for Mother Nature when she decided to destroy my roof. […]
Who knew? This seems to be my favorite phrase lately, but especially this past week. I’ve just come back from my annual vision exam where my eye doctor checked my vision, and noticed a “slight decrease in my distance vision due to cataracts in both eyes.” Having cataracts was not a surprise to me; however, since my vision has stayed […]
When Simon and Garfunkel released this song in 1966, I was enough of an English-major nerd to know it was based on a poem written by Edwin Arlington Robinson in 1897. It is a cautionary tale about admiring someone else and being misled by appearances. Today, the poem stays with me, shocking in its clarity about the dangers of depression. […]
One of the things about getting older is that an entire new world of illnesses open up to you. And while my friends and I do not ordinarily share a park bench – which, incidentally, common sense tells me we should do – more often or not we are sharing time and space over coffee, lunch or dinner. Sometimes, we […]