by Monica A. Coleman | Sep 26, 2011 | Blog, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
I wanted to be pregnant if only for the possibility of helpful hormones. “Pregnancy is great for some women with depression,” my psychiatrist says. “The hormones can help.” I think of my women friends with depression who tell me that pregnancy nearly killed them. That...
by Monica A. Coleman | Sep 19, 2011 | Blog, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
I grew up in a state of unionized workers. My mother was in a teachers’ union. My father worked for one of the “Big Three” automakers and UAW is an acronym every Michigander knows. Every year, there were talks of negotiations and talks of strikes. The only thing worse...
by Monica A. Coleman | Sep 14, 2011 | Blog, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
My parents called it “talking back.” Some people call it “sassing.” It’s that willful behavior that children have when they just have to respond to what they’ve been told—sometimes with attitude, snarky upturn of lip or obvious petulance. The admonition not to “talk...
by Monica A. Coleman | Sep 8, 2011 | Blog, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
I long became comfortable with bleeding. The Red Tent, Honoring Menstruation and Sacred Woman guided me into a healthy relationship with my womanhood, my womb and the cycles of the moon. I didn’t know what to do when I stopped bleeding. It felt like weeks before I got...
by Monica A. Coleman | Sep 6, 2011 | Blog, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
I grew up in the 1980s before AIDS was called HIV. My closest friends and I were trained to be deathly afraid of unprotected sex. At worst, you would get AIDS and die. And best, you got pregnant and there went your career dreams. Or so we believed as we sat around the...
by Monica A. Coleman | Aug 19, 2011 | Blog, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
I’m an ordained minister, but I’m not good at all that the life of ministry requires. I’m particularly embarrassed at how bad I am with hospital visitations. Early in my ministry career, I delighted when I put the clergy pass on my car’s dashboard and parked in the...
