FPA Blog

Hello FPA friends and Happy February! This month I want to share with y'all a poem that was read by my brother during my wedding ceremony. I just think it's lovely and captures some foundational ideas about how I view romantic relationships. I hope you read it and enjoy it and maybe take a moment to reflect on the relationships in your life- the ones you've had, the ones you've witnessed in your families, the ones you hope to someday have. Does your love look the way you want it to? Does it look the way you need it to? What part can you play in building a healthier connection to the ones most important to you? This poem was written by Neil Gaiman, for his friends on their wedding day: This is everything I have to tell you about love:  nothing. This is everything I've learned about marriage:  nothing .   Only that the world out there is complicated, and there are beasts in the night, and delight and pain, and the only thing that makes it okay, sometimes, is to reach ...

Hello FPA and Happy New Year to you each! January has arrived, along with it a new start as we welcome 2025. In our part of the world a new year comes in the middle of our winter season- when the trees are bare. I write a lot about the changing of the seasons and the way our weather affects us. I think because one of the universal human experiences is the experience of weather. Weather is also a way to connect to our own communities, as we experience the changing seasons together. The energy of the collective shifts as the energy of the sun and the rain and the temperatures shift. I also love connecting to the changing of the seasons. As life comes in seasons, in waves of celebration and sadness, in ups and downs of abundance and scarcity, so does our environment. I've been thinking this season about the juxtaposition of newness with winter. The idea of 'new' brings with it ideas of spring, of blossoms and baby animals, of growth and expansion. Winter is not a time of growt...

Hello friends of FPA! December is in full swing. The holiday season is upon us. With the holidays often comes an increase in stress. We manage the expectations of ourselves and our loved ones around traditions, gatherings, gifting, and events. This is your gentle reminder to be honest with yourself and others about what matters to you during the holiday season. Less can be more. Doing less can lead to having more- more bandwidth, more quality time, more patience, more presence, more gratitude, more joy. Less pressure can mean more ease with your loved ones. Less gifting can mean more security for your family finances. Less hosting can mean more patience during times of togetherness. If you find that the holidays put you in a funk, get curious with yourself about why. You might be grieving the loss of an important person, celebrating without them for the first time. You might be stressed about finances and anxious about how you're going to afford everything expected of you. You migh...