Living
Japan: Another disaster
This is becoming much too familiar. As I turned on the news this morning, I gasped. Oh no, not again. Like most of you I started a familiar dance – inching closer to the screen to see what was going on and mentally cataloging where my friends and family are. My niece is in Malaysia, […] Read More >
Is Racism Natural?
There was a video on CNN yesterday that stopped me in my tracks. It wasn’t footage from Thailand, or election coverage. It is a video of a little 5 year old girl sitting in front of an image of 5 cartoon children. The children are all wearing the same dress and the same expression, only […] Read More >
Can Love Go the Distance?
They say that “absence makes the heart grow fonder”, but I’m not convinced that’s true. I think that love makes the heart grow fonder, distance just gets in the way. If you love someone, you’re supposed to want to be with them. Distance is not an insurmountable obstacle, but I have a hard time believing […] Read More >
What Makes You Happy?
As the election results came in this morning I kept thinking of a single line from the Declaration of Independence, you know that part about “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”? I couldn’t help but wonder who was feeling what this morning. For some these election results are exactly what they dreamed of, and […] Read More >
Telling Our Own Stories
I am still trying to decide if identity is a solid, sure thing or if it changes. Do we become different versions of ourselves over time, or does time give us the wisdom to accept who we were all along? Are the new versions simply deeper levels of self acceptance? I was reading a friend’s […] Read More >
How to Say “I’m sorry”
Arguably the worst piece of romantic advice ever given is the oft quoted, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Love is all about saying you’re sorry. Love, when it’s good, is finding someone that you want to be with, someone you want to share your life with. Inevitably in all that togetherness there […] Read More >
Bullying: Silence Kills
I turned on CNN this morning and there was more news of bullying and suicide and it broke my heart. Bullying sometimes gets passed off as just a part of growing up. But for many young people, they won’t get the chance to grow up. For them, bullying cost them everything. I know how they […] Read More >
Are You a Good Tease?
If someone teases you and you are hurt by it who is at fault? Is it your fault for “not being able to laugh at yourself” or for “always taking things too seriously”? Or is it the fault of the teaser? Have they tried to be funny and only succeeded in being mean. Is saying […] Read More >
Trying to Answer the Why?
We’ve all asked “why?” at some point or another. Chris Keith has been asking why for most of his life. He was 12 years old when his grandparents decided he was old enough to know the truth. His whole family – his parents and his older brother Mikey – did not die in a car […] Read More >
Eat, Pray, Love a Little
There’s been a lot of people finding inspiration from books this past year. In the wake of Julie and Julia there’s one woman making over a dress a day on a $1 budget, and another who’s committed to wearing one dress every day for a year. Not surprisingly, Elizabeth Gilbert’s best seller, and now major […] Read More >