It’s horrible to hate someone, like my current colleague, Josephine. She triggers me into instant fury with her insults and lies. I strategize on how to stay out of her way. When I must encounter her, I raise my mental and emotional shields. I repeat affirmations to dispel the dread she inspires in my gut. […]

My elderly neighbor, Ed, has a pet fish, Norman, who lives in a thirty-inch-long aquarium. Beige and white speckles adorn the classic-looking fish that seems to have no exotic pedigree. But Norman excels at eating and growing. In the past year, he’s expanded to about eleven inches long. My nine-year-old daughter, Grace, loves to visit