I used to think I had a problem with bridges. Then I learned that we can talk ourselves into panic when we’re safe and into calm when we’re in real danger. I live in Pennsylvania, close to Delaware, where I can easily enjoy proximity to tax-free shopping, Philadelphia, and my beloved Jersey shore. I love my view of the bridge to New Jersey from my neighborhood and the opportunities to proclaim, “I can see New Jersey from my windshield,” throughout my area. So it’s ironic that I made crossing the bridge to New Jersey a source of so much anxiety for so long. Anxiety Amid Calm I have no clue what prompted it, but after several years of driving to the shore every weekend for work, I started to become anxious as I crossed the bridge, but only on the way home. I was never truly unsafe on the bridge, but the. . . .

I suspect that, as a kid, I was a little excited about Labor Day, the start of the school year and time to reconnect with friends I hadn’t seen all summer. When I was a corporate drone in workplaces so intense I noticed little of the world outside of the office, I barely had the energy to notice, let alone celebrate, Labor Day As a teacher with the luxury of spending the whole summer at my beloved Jersey shore, Labor Day weekend was not a happy time. I cried so hard – sobbing, ugly cry – during the entire 75-mile drive home one year, I’m still not sure how I made it safely across the Delaware River. Labor Day was different this year. In the words of the prophet story teller Jimmy Buffett, “it’s been quite a summer.” After spending the last three months caring for my mom through her final. . . .

If you’re feeling stuck and out of options, I believe there’s always another way. Always. Pretty bold, huh? No, I don’t have the peer reviewed academic studies to support my claim, but in my experience, there’s always another way – usually several – a lot more often than we think. And the likelihood of missing those other ways goes up exponentially when we try to figure out everything by ourselves, take only the same point of view, and try to get un-stuck with the same tools that got us stuck in the first place. So, yeah, I’m sticking with there’s always another way. Support, Viewpoint, Tools You can find those other ways more easily and more consistently when you get support, shift your view, and use new tools to get where you want to go. Here’s an example of wayfinding another way from my seasonal, part time side hustle. As kids. . . .