ArcaMax

Ongoing meaningful, goal-oriented work is the ultimate connection, the taproot into the world around you. By its very nature, it places you in the middle of a varied support group -- from the bank clerk who cashes your check to the salesperson who sells you clothes for the office to the people who work beside you. The routine of work itself is a...Read more

Dear Eric: I have two daughters that are estranged. I do not want to get in the middle of it, but it is getting ridiculous.

Daughter #1 did not want daughter #2 to marry her choice in husbands but she did anyway.

Now, a few years have passed and the situation is worse. Daughter #1 will not communicate with #2 and won't even acknowledge her new...Read more

Dear Annie: I am 52 and I have a good life on paper. I am married, I work full-time, and I have two teenagers who keep me busy. But lately I have felt oddly lonely, and I am not sure if I am being overly sensitive or finally noticing something I have ignored for years.

I have a close group of friends from our kids' elementary school days. We ...Read more

Dear Eric: My spouse and I are senior citizens, and we occasionally have small gatherings, or what I intended to be small gatherings. The last couple gatherings have turned into large gatherings due to other people being brought by the invited guests.

I know the uninvited people but as an acquaintance.

Neighbors that live on our block see the ...Read more

Dear Annie: My husband and I have been together for more than 30 years. In the beginning, we were the couple who couldn't keep our hands off each other. We smiled easily, held hands without thinking, and felt lucky just to be in the same room after a long day.

Somewhere between raising three kids, becoming grandparents, and moving into our ...Read more

Dear Readers: Presidents Day isn't the flashiest holiday. There are no fireworks, no heart-shaped chocolates, no songs you can't escape in the grocery store. It tends to arrive with a shrug, a long weekend and a mysterious sale on mattresses.

But I've always liked it for what it can quietly be: a reminder to think about character.

Not the ...Read more

It was the twirling end of the mustache I noticed first, before I realized he looked familiar. This was not unexpected, as I had been sitting in the Utilities boardroom for a few years, even before I was elected. When I interviewed him for a story about his time at Utilities, he was still new to his role; now he's the second-in-command at the ...Read more

Dear Annie: From the outside, my life looks like the kind of "before" photo people put in gratitude journals. I have a husband who is genuinely kind, kids who still call and actually want to tell me about their days, and a steady job that pays the bills and even gives me a sense of purpose. Friends tell me I'm lucky, and I know they mean it. I...Read more

Dear Readers,

Valentine's Day has a funny way of making people take attendance of who remembered the holiday, who didn't, who has plans, who pretends they do, who smiles at the grocery store display of roses and who speeds past it like it might ask a personal question.

If today feels joyful for you, wonderful. Enjoy every bit of it. If today...Read more

Dear Annie: I've been friends with the same group of women since our children were in grade school. We're now in our late 50s and early 60s, and for years this group has been my main social circle. We've shared weddings, divorces, illnesses and losses. I will always value them for that.

Lately, though, I find myself dreading our get-togethers...Read more

Feminism is changing. The vitality that made sisters of us all, women tethered to one another by indignation and conviction, is becoming more personal. The battle for equal partnership is being waged in corporate offices, day care centers, private homes -- no longer by bra-burning mobs in public squares -- and it will ultimately be won by women ...Read more