Salee Reese

Keep Your Mouth Shut! Really?

 Numerous times in our lifetime—no, in a single day—we’re faced with a dilemma: Do I open my mouth or keep it zipped? Do I take the risk or play it safe? It’s not easy being verbally courageous. I fail at it more times than I succeed. But when I do succeed, it leaves me feeling […]

Getting Naked

We all carry around our share of shame-debris. That is, unless we grew up in a perfect environment with perfect parents, perfect siblings, perfect everybody, or—let’s face it—planted on a perfect planet. Recently, I discovered a video where Brené Brown makes us feel pretty normal about our shame. She also makes us feel normal about our […]

The Latest Wow: The Power of Love

Remember Beth? I mentioned her in an earlier post.  She and Sam got a divorce several months ago but then decided to give it another go. In that post I asked her, “What made you change your mind?” She said, “I’ve discovered that anger fades a lot faster than love.” They’re living together now to discover whether the […]

She Turned Me Into a Puppet … But Puppets Can’t Love

“She turned me into a puppet, and then wondered why I no longer loved her. The answer is simple—a puppet doesn’t have a heart.” “As men, we share a single purpose: to find that one special female who will kill us just slowly enough that by the time we reach 80, we’re already dead.” To read […]

The Latest Wow: Military Officer Endorses Tears

I want to share with you a touching email I received from a Naval Officer stationed in Viriginia Beach.  He wrote to me after reading “Tears Are As Natural As Breathing”—the column I refer to in the previous post, “Dare to Cry.” Here it is: “Salee, I just wanted you to know that shortly after […]

Dare to Cry

“Tears are a sign of a soul feeling awake.” — Michael Meade I love that quote because it slams the notion that something is wrong with shedding tears. In truth, something is probably wrong if we don’t. Like so many of us, I learned at an early age that tears aren’t acceptable, and that they stand […]

Black or White?

By this time of year, winter has clearly worn out its welcome—we’re tired of it. If we’re not mindful, the dreariness and cold can transport our mood to the basement. As for the snow, it’s pretty but it does create its share of challenges. The other day, a colleague and I were watching it come down […]

She Married Her Brother

Not really. Sheri married a man who puts her down just like her brother used to. What I really mean when I say she married her older brother is that she’s married to a pattern that began in childhood. That pattern consists of being zapped with a negative comment—like an accusation—and then reacting to it […]