I remember sitting in his office and feeling my jaw clench. He was walking me through, once again, everything that had gone wrong. Who had shut him out. Who had said what. Who was making his work impossible. In his telling, every problem started with someone else. And my body was having none of it. My chest tightened. My heart picked up speed. I could feel myself bracing, the way you brace before an argument. On the outside, I was nodding along professionally. On the inside, I was rolling my...

I was checking the mail one afternoon, chatting with a neighbor, when I mentioned I had surgery coming up. She asked if she could make us a meal. Then she said something that has stayed with me: bringing meals is one way our neighborhood shows up for each other. So I set up a meal train, and she passed it along. For over a week, dinner arrived at our door every night. It isn’t the first time. Our neighbors supported us when I had surgery four years ago. And nearly nine years ago, shortly...

The other week my friend called me distressed. A week earlier she had gone through a second round of layoffs in her company where she had to deliver the bad news to employees on her team. And now she was being demoted, which there was no sound reasoning for the decision. Her boss wanted to talk about the change in her role. When she told him that she was still processing her emotions and not ready to talk about it, he replied that he could handle her raw feelings. So she shared what was...