Seven essays

The writing

These are long pieces about self-knowledge and reinvention, and about designing a life that is genuinely yours. Kerry writes them from Lisbon, mostly at the kitchen table, early.

01 How to start over at 55 after a divorce August 2026

The lawyers end. The harder part stays. Six stages, the three things to do this week, and the questions people ask me most.

02 What the world calls a midlife crisis is usually you outgrowing your life. June 2026

The low hum that arrives in your forties and fifties, why it is louder right now, and why it is intelligence rather than a breakdown.

03 The question that changed everything for me June 2026

A tower of self-help books on the nightstand, a sheep, a wolf, and the one question that finally pointed somewhere else.

04 What your feelings are actually telling you June 2026

Anger, dread and the heavy sadness that pulls you back towards the bed are the compass on board. How to read it, and how to start trusting it.

05 What affirmations leave out, and what makes them stick June 2026

You can tell the mirror you are confident a hundred times and still feel the floor drop out. The words and the wiring are at war. Here is the order that fixes it.

06 The difference between surviving and coming home to yourself June 2026

You can hold a good job, raise good kids, keep every plate spinning, and be in pure survival the whole time. What is on the other side of coping.

07 On moving to Lisbon, and what reinvention costs June 2026

People picture the airport. The months on the bathroom floor come as a surprise. The bill for a real reinvention, itemized.

Where to start

Six questions, and you will know which chapter you are in

The essays circle the same six stages. The quiz works out which one you are standing in, and it takes about two minutes.

Find your chapter Read chapter one, free