Loss

Swirling down

Again thoughts again

Ruminate

 I learned today that a fabulous clinical psychology researcher who was a professor at Michigan while I was a student, died recently.  Susan Nolen-Hoeksema researched causes of depression, particularly in women and adolescents.  She wrote frequently about rumination and over thinking.  Rumination and repetitive thinking about the past events or the effects on the future without active coping can contribute to depression.  While thinking can be powerful and healing, it can also lead us into deeper darkness.  I am grateful for the work she has done and for the women who have gone before me to make my career, my personal life, my thinking possible, to allow it to be what it is.  

Everywhere I look or read today there seems to be something about feminist empowerment whether directly or through exposure to the opposite and the violence and confinement to which women have been subject. It was in Downton Abbey, Mad Men, and The Handmaid's Tale--all of which I read or watched some portion of today. May we women think in ways that nourish and empower ourselves, each other, and those we love.