On a recent trip to New York City, I spotted a young man studying a musical score on the subway, deep in concentration. I’ve traveled to New York nearly a dozen times, so I know it’s not uncommon to board the train and see musicians setting their instruments beside them on a seat, or to...
The other night, I attended an “evening of creation” designed to help us access our “practical spirituality.” One of the presenters, Jonathan, played music for us on a handpan drum. I wasn’t familiar with the instrument, and the sound was ethereal and relaxing. Jonathan was one of those splendid individuals who manage to come across...
This Post Was First Published on January 16, 2016 I have a tendency to work too much. My friends tell me to slow down, take more naps, spend more time outdoors, and so on. So, I do. I drop some projects, step back from some roles, say no to some opportunities. And for the first...
Artist Dario Robleto once said, “With nothing to risk, love can’t exist.” Maybe that quote is resonating with me because my husband and I are approaching our 32nd anniversary. Though we’d been together for two and a half years by the time he asked me to marry him, and while we’d talked around the subject...
I gifted a nonfiction book to a friend I knew she’d like. She texted me to say she was loving it, so much so she’d actually dog-eared a couple of pages so she could come back to them later. I texted back: “Books are not sacred. Dog-ear it, underline it, write in the margins, put...
This post first ran on April 17, 2021 My book club recently reached a full consensus about a book: none of us liked it. In fact, four of the ten chose not to finish reading it. The conversation about the book was entertaining because whenever there’s agreement, people can speak freely, and some of their...
Did your favorite toy as a child predict your future? Is it possible we understand our journey in life long before we can even articulate it? I was pondering those questions when I decided to give a stuffed Snoopy to my friend’s daughter for her first birthday. Snoopy was my first love, long before I...
I’ve talked a lot about intention in this blog over the years, mostly trying to figure out how exactly it works. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the only time in my life when I felt like intention was really clear. It was back in college, when I’d meet my friends at the bar on a...
My husband adores TikTok. Whenever he finds a short video he thinks I’d like, he texts it to me. During a recent rough patch, he got in the habit of texting me a funny video first thing in the morning. Since he gets up before me, he could do it before I was awake. I’d...
My husband is closing out a 33-year career in corporate America. He’s not retiring, he’s moving into a new line of creative work of his choosing. Still, it feels like a huge change. He’s been at the same company his entire career and started there when we were still dating. That company has been our...