The DHX: The Doughtie Houses Exchange

“Hardly ever do you hear about or see a beautiful divorce where the ex-husband and ex-wife and all the husbands-in-law and wifes-in-law get along nicely and live happily ever after. . . .
“Look in any bookstore or library. There you will find hundreds of books telling you how to be happily married, but not one [...]

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“Appreciate your family as a training ground for love.”
– “Blended family holidays don’t have to be difficult”, Garden City Telegram (by way of TheStepfamilyLife)

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The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict by the Arbinger Institute
Every so often I pick up a book and it transforms my life. What was it Kafka said about books? “A book must be an ice-axe to break the sea frozen inside us.” This book did that for me.
If I could only recommend [...]

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As we mentioned in our DivorcingDaze interview, Kathy and I didn’t always get along. We had a period of time — about a year — where we basically didn’t talk to each other. From my perspective, I was shocked and surprised at the degree to which our houses and lives were intertwined. It was beyond [...]

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“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” — Rumi

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“[W]hatever happens to anybody, it may be turn’d to beautiful results.” — Walt Whitman

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Physorg.com: Massive study finds parenting practices don’t suffer during divorce
Anne O’Connor, DivorceMag: Stepfamily Roles - “In every family, people adjust to each other, and each takes on a certain role. But in stepfamilies, people sometimes fall into a role without considering whether it suits their needs or those of the family system.” (more) This is [...]

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“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” — Yoda

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Woulda Coulda Shoulda: What a long, strange trip it’s been - Mir revels in the connection she sees growing between her husband and her children (his new stepkids): “It makes me warm and fuzzy for the kids, because—despite what some other people related to them might think—there is not some sort of global allotment of [...]

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