I'm obsessed with human behavior.

I grapple with what I love and hate about people.

How they fascinate, inspire and horrify me.

I don't accept platitudes. "Never say hate. Forgiveness heals. She's in a better place." I believe we need to name our hardest emotions so they don't eat us alive. In that, we move forward and become our better selves.

In college I studied psychology to understand and heal myself.

I often write about how to deal with ambivalence and "taboo" emotions.

Like how as a new mom I loved my daughter but not motherhood. How the confused brain of postpartum depression made me believe I'd made a big mistake.

How despite everyone insisting it was a "blessing and a gift" to be with my father at his death bed, I felt the opposite. His death rattle wheezing and final breathes weren't closure for the bond we'd already had.

Or how we can try like hell to make peace with a loved ones with harmful views. But sometimes we can't. So we pretend we still respect each other. We draw boundaries, but we live the quiet lie because maybe we love each other, enough.





My website and writing: Laura-Owens.com