Question: Dear Luise: I have a hard time returning items that I have bought. It’s something that has always been difficult for me. Sometimes the clerks are terrible but not always. I would rather throw something away, even a costly purchase, than go through the misery I feel inside trying to drag myself to the [...]

Question: Dear Luise: How do we develop the quality of acceptance? Is it something in our nature or absent from it? Or is it something we can learn about and cultivate? I seem to be missing this component in my makeup to a large degree. I am always judging, evaluating, comparing and complaining. It doesn’t [...]

Question: Dear Luise: I have been playing with the idea of looking into online dating but to tell you the truth it scares me silly. I have met people at work and at church but the majority of the men there are married and I can usually see why the singles find themselves in that [...]

Question: Dear Luise: If you got the perfect question for you, what would it be about? Is there anything you would like to write about “just because?” I have been reading your website for over a year and I just love it. The main reason is because your subjects are so varied. I know you [...]

Question: Dear Luise: I wonder if marriage is possible for the free spirit? I have been single for many years and instead of looking for “the” guy, I have been carefully protecting my independence and privacy. Well, guess who ran smack into “the” guy? Right! I’m a grandmother and a professional woman. I took raising [...]

Question: Dear Luise: My daughter recently used the word serendipity to describe something almost magical that happened to her. I’m not familiar with it and looked it up and read, “to make discoveries by accident and sagacity, of a thing not in quest of.” Then, of course, I had to look up sagacity, which is [...]

Question: Hi Luise: My mom has positive thinking statements for everything. And my Dad, well, he preaches deliverance from negative thinking by telling me that I am going to become a bad person if I keep thinking bad thoughts. I feel they are both totally in denial about the fact that life isn’t always wonderful [...]

Question: Dear Luise: I am in a relationship that has a different feel to it than anything I have experienced before and I would like some long term relationship advice. We both feel we may want to make it permanent. My concern is how afraid I am of disagreements. I tell him what he wants [...]