by Mary B Safrit | May 18, 2022 | Mental Health
Have you heard of touch deprivation? The term is fairly self-explanatory. It happens when we are deprived of human touch for a period of time. Generally, it is in the context of platonic touch. To varying degrees, human beings need touch. In some Western cultures,...
by Mary B Safrit | May 11, 2022 | Singleness
On a Friday, I sat at my computer, doing my last checks. Email, website updates, weekly to-dos. Was there anything I was forgetting? It was 5:15. Now that it is getting darker earlier, I try to wrap up in time for an evening walk beginning at 5:30. I opened my website...
by Mary B Safrit | May 4, 2022 | Relationships and Community
I sat on a chambray blanket in Central Park on Sunday. It wasn’t my blanket; I hadn’t brought one. The blanket belonged to the facilitator of our group discussion. Eight of us sat in a circle eating our various Asian-inspired bowls while our leader asked questions...
by Mary B Safrit | Apr 27, 2022 | Singleness
It’s wedding season! You know what that means. Time to feel an uncomfortable mix of weird emotions!! When you’re single and weddings abound, it can be a bit of a mixed bag, emotionally speaking. On the one hand, you’re happy for your friends who are getting married....
by Mary B Safrit | Dec 23, 2021 | Singleness
This past September on Instagram, Devi Abraham asked me to share some thoughts on how married people can support singles. Devi co-hosts a podcast called Where Do We Go From Here, on which they talk about purity culture, its effects on Christians, and how to move...
by Mary B Safrit | Dec 16, 2021 | Relationships and Community
I wish I were better at forgiveness. I feel like, as a Christian, I should be. Every week at church, we pray the Lord’s Prayer, which includes the line, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” I am now technically a card-carrying Presbyterian, and so that’s...
by Mary B Safrit | Dec 9, 2021 | Mental Health, Singleness
It was mid-March. I recently came out of a professional sprint–moderating and running logistics for a virtual event series called From the Beauty Shop to the Pew, wrapping up the fifth season of my podcast, and releasing my ebook The Single Christian’s Church...
by Mary B Safrit | Dec 2, 2021 | Singleness
Around these parts, we talk about a lot of things pertaining to people who are single and also Christian. We talk about relational well-being, mental health, and calling. We also talk about the reality of being single in a culture low to high key obsessed with...
by Mary B Safrit | Nov 18, 2021 | Christian Living, Relationships and Community
Back in June, my pal, Kerrah Fabacher, and I continued our monthly series on Instagram live on Boundaries in Friendship. The topic this time around? “Male-Female Friendships: What’s the Big Deal?” In preparing for this conversation, we quickly realized there were a...
by Mary B Safrit | Nov 11, 2021 | Mental Health
Growing up on a farm meant periodically creatures who belong outdoors found their way indoors. In winter or after a field was harvested or mowed, the wee (and not so wee) creatures seemed to look up for the first time and notice a ready-made shelter hitherto...
