Are You Really Fine—Or Just Saying “I’m Fine”?
Inspired by an acronym I once heard for "fine," here’s my current take: F—Fucked-up I—Isolated N—Nettled E—Exhausted At the start of a Zoom meeting with a new colleague, when we exchanged pleasantries, I asked how she was doing. "Fine," she answered. Then she asked...
It’s Never too Late to Celebrate Love
Grieving in My Own Time After my mom died, I was flattened. Exhausted, I wanted to wait three months, or maybe even a year, before doing something in her memory. My brother kindly agreed. During that time, I recalled someone telling me, "Do it your way." I remember...
3 Steps to Meditation Made Easy
Shed Expectations: Nearly 50 years into my meditation practice, a moment from 2007 still resonates. While on a retreat in India, a friend expressed her struggles with meditation during an evening walk. My friend shared that she really couldn’t meditate. I felt badly...
Mastering Stage Fright: 8 Powerful Techniques for Creative Audience Connection
I was seven years old standing in the wings waiting for my turn to step out onto the stage. Despite knowing all my lines, moments before I was to take those few enormous steps to center stage, my mind went blank, and my lines disappeared. I wanted to turn to someone,...
10 Ways to Honor the Fall Equinox
September 22nd is the fall equinox. Another year, another fall, a time of harvest. To see, to re-member, to gather, and to celebrate what we are growing and have grown in our gardens this year. Sometimes, we are moving so fast in our lives that we don't take a moment...
A Celebration of Love & Stories
If you have someone in your life that you would love to secretly or openly celebrate, then celebrate them and celebrate love. In sharing the stories of our loved ones who have passed on, we honor our sacred connection to them that ever exists and forever lives on.
Give Sorrow Words: How Writing Heals
Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak whispers the o’er fraught heart and bids it break. ~William Shakespeare The World as I Knew It Was Gone When my mom died, I was flattened. The rug wasn’t pulled out from under my feet. The rug was pulled out from under...
Changing Plans, Shifting Sands: The Body’s Wisdom & Premonitions
The body’s wisdom and its premonitions can change plans and shift the sands under our feet without notice. Life is not always easy when this occurs. When things suddenly change, it can throw us into personal or professional havoc, and have us questioning ourselves. And yet, the body is a source of infinite wisdom and can be a powerful ally in our lives.
A Summer Swim Team: Twelve Years Old and the Heyday of My Life
Twelve years old and a summer swim team is a touchstone on the timeline of my life. Little known fact, I’m a great swimmer. It’s one thing that I’m not modest about. My teacher and coach, Bob Schleihauf, taught me the most about swimming. Before him was another teacher who taught me well, except for one key lesson. I could swim, but when I went to camp, I was a non-swimmer the entire summer. It was one of the camp jokes that I wore proudly. The non-swimmer who could swim. I’d demonstrate great ability in the shallow end of the lake, but when I went to take the test in deep water, I’d panic.
When Will Life Return to Normal? On the Language of Grief & Gun Violence
It has been over six weeks since the massacre of children and their teachers in Uvalde, Texas. But I still remember the narrator’s voice on the evening TV news saying, "It will be a long time before life returns to normal." I was stunned by those words. The word...