by Marlena Fiol | Apr 14, 2019
My father — front left. My mother — front right. The day after their wedding, at the Newton, KS train station, leaving for Paraguay in 1943 When I was a kid, my dad was my hero-doctor. He stitched up my chin three times after I fell again and again and…
by Marlena Fiol | Apr 8, 2019
I ended my last post with this question: Really, what’s the point of having relationships with people if I can’t have sticky, messy, real relationships that will help me grow toward greater wholeness, less loneliness and a longer life? But the question remains, is…
by Marlena Fiol | Apr 5, 2019
Even if (maybe especially if) it Scares Me My prior blog posts suggested that showing up vulnerably with others is necessary if I want to be truly known. I introduced research concluding that not being known makes me feel isolated. And feeling isolated makes me…
by Marlena Fiol | Mar 20, 2019
The wounded feet of one of my father’s leprosy patients — circa 1950s In a prior blog, I wrote about the importance of touch in my intimate relationship. When my partner and I discovered “the skin thing” over 20 years ago, we thought we were onto something new….
by Marlena Fiol | Mar 14, 2019
We all know that sex can be exciting, compelling and revitalizing. But did you know that when researchers recently asked happily married couples how important sex was to the success of their marriage — on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest — the…
by Marlena Fiol | Mar 8, 2019
When I feel lonely, I’m not alone. Cigna recently surveyed 20,000 people and found that about half of the respondents reported that they often felt lonely or left out. It turns out that loneliness has very little to do with the actual number of…