You & Your Family

Christian cheer

The Christmas season draws out a mix of emotions. Many families celebrate Christmas with feasting and merrymaking. Others dread the rush to buy the obligatory presents. Still others may feel…

Different, not deviant

Of late, diversity has been a buzzword and is often seen as desirable. We see diversity in families too.  Within a family, there might be grandparents who belong to the…

Rituals and routines

She caught me right after service and confronted me with what seemed more like a statement than a question: “You crossed yourself. Are you Catholic?” I had made the sign…

Our footprints

The flight was unusually turbulent, with the seatbelt sign flashing frequently and the pilot urging everyone to stay seated. Due, perhaps, to having watched too many documentaries on air crash…

When the will to go on is lost

Within the same week in the past month, the media reported the separate suicides of two well-known personalities—Kate Spade, a fashion designer, and Anthony Bourdain, a celebrity chef. The tragedy…

Good salt

While holidaying in Strunjen, Slovenia, I saw salt pans where salt has been extracted for seven centuries. In its heyday, demand was so high that the sea salt was called…

Prayers that define us

Do you have a favourite prayer, one you often say or which resonates with you? One popular prayer is the Serenity Prayer (attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr). A widely-used, abbreviated version…

Unity – The key to family life

Every semester, I ask my counselling students to reflect on how their family has influenced their development. On average, one out of every three has stories of family strife. Some…

Hope and faith : Are we believers?

In the work I do, the word ‘hope’ seems a little out of place. As a family and marital therapist, I use psychology as a frame of reference for understanding…

Making tough choices

Recently, I have been reminded of how difficult it is to love and accept others unconditionally. Realistically, there may be only a handful of individuals whom we can claim to…
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