Growing Bolder Community

Help can come from unexpected voices if you're listening. Theresa stopped the entire Zumba class. Someone’s husband was talking to her so loudly she couldn’t function. But he was nowhere to be seen. She had to deliver his message to his wife. She did. Then class resumed like normal. I was channel surfing last night when I came across TLC’s “Long Island Medium” starring...

The unexpected. It’s what happens when you have everything planned out perfectly. And when the rollercoaster gets going, you just have to let life take flight.My daughter’s preparation for final exams at school is giving me flashbacks of how true this is. Flashback #1: When my daughter was in kindergarten, the students were studying the metamorphosis of caterpillars. They had a...

Today I went to Wal-Mart. A man with an equally long list of “Things To Buy” stopped me. “Excuse me, miss, can you tell me what these are?” he asked, pointing to the words on his list “knee-high or trouser socks.” He explained that his wife had asked him to buy some for her. I was quite taken by his steadfastness to find exactly what she wanted. It would have been...

Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya, oh Lord, kumbaya. 100 bottles of beer on the wall. 100 bottles of beer. Take one down, pass it around, 99 bottles of beer on the wall. 99 bottles of beer on the wall…….. Ah, those tunes we sang around the campfire. As the school year winds down, parents prepare to gleefully embrace the next season, sending their children to summer camp. Yipee! Time...

Thank you, President Obama, for endorsing same-sex marriage this past week. You unleashed the souls of many, allowing them to love freely. Don announced to me, “I’m getting a divorce.” Don worked for the printing company that printed the bank’s employee newsletter, which I was editor of. In addition to our serious professional relationship we had a very fun, casual friendship....

Uch, his smirk makes me sick to my stomach now. I have always believed that most people are trustworthy to the core. And I still believe it despite how I was fooled on March 28, 2007. Today, John Edwards's trial for misusing campaign funds to cover up his affair with Rielle Hunter while he pursued presidential election in 2008 is winding down. He has pleaded not guilty. The case...

You shouldn't be embarrassed about or ashamed of your fears. Sadness weighs heavy in the hearts of millions of fans mourning the passing of disco icon Donna Summer. Although I parted with my silky smooth, wrinkle-free brown, black, blue, and red quiana wrap-around dance skirts decades ago, the memories have never faded. In the late 1970’s, innumerable hours were spent every Saturday...

Olympic buzz is building as we countdown to July 27, the day of opening ceremonies in London. Visions of watching synchronized swimming creep out of my memory. I always think that TV broadcasters covering this competition have to restrain themselves from giggling. The sport is frequently the butte of jokes by late-night comedians. Often, people confide their relationship and marriage...

The media is acting bewildered by “What went wrong?” in the five-year marriage of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. I know the answers. Although I’ve never met Tom or Katie, like millions around the globe I've been subjected to ridiculous amounts of media hype about this couple. Also, I've interviewed hundreds of couples married over 50 years, 75 whom are featured in Everlasting Matrimony:...

B-O-R-I-N-G. Every relationship gets boring. No matter how madly in love you are, one day it will happen. In my interviews with long-married couples to write Everlasting Matrimony and through my own nearly-23 years of marriage, I’ve learned there are guaranteed ways to dig your way out of a relationship rut. Most people, myself included, want easy and fast solutions. Here are...