We are approaching Juneteenth, our newest federal holiday. You have probably heard the story by now. Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1963, declaring that “All persons held as slaves …are and henceforth shall be free.”  But it only could be enforced in the few Confederate states controlled by Union troops. On June 19, 1865, two-and-a-half years later, General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, the last holdout state, and ordered slaveholders there to free their slaves. … read more »

Well, once again, the world has changed completely – overnight. Like many of you, I’m in New York where the smoke filled our air so badly this week that the City basically shut down and we were all told to stay inside and close our windows. Who knew those wildfires in Canada, hundreds of miles away, would have such an intense effect on millions of people in the northeast US? As one of my clients said, it was like a … read more »

May 30th was our 10th kidneyversary. ‘What’s that?’ you ask. Well, I’ll tell you! My late husband, Darryl, had kidney failure in March 2012 due to sickle cell disease; so he went on dialysis. For months, he taught 6th grade during the day and then went to dialysis every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 6:00-10:00 pm. The schedule was rigid and grueling. To miss a session could be life-threatening. In his poem about it, “Measuring in Liters,” he wrote, The … read more »

I’ve done 2 great interviews in the last few weeks! The first was an amazing podcast interview with Andrea Rappaport and Morgan Stogsdill, Esq. on their podcast, How Not to Suck at Divorce.  They were curious about how I handle mediations with high conflict couples. I told them that you don’t have to agree on any of the substantive stuff – only that you will each come to mediation in good faith. And we talked about 3 action steps that you can take while … read more »