Stories With Heart And Soul 
Kindness is a superfood. Berries, nuts and leafy greens can’t compete with the instant boost that being kind gives you. The health benefits of being kind include an ability to lower blood pressure and boost levels of serotonin and dopamine in your brain. I’m surprised doctors don’t include practicing kindness in every prescription. Yesterday, I
Continue reading...
With a high ponytail, a pressed white coat, and a clipboard. This is how I imagine my daughter Emma. She’s standing in an exam room, a friendly physician assistant, but I can’t talk to her because I’m gone. Dead. The thought is so overwhelming that my mind is ice. In seconds a familiar anxiety tells
Continue reading...
This week, rain dripped from gutters with the steady pace of a metronome. It was soothing but also slightly sinister like the rhythm in an Alfred Hitchcock film just before the murder. Under the charcoal rubbed sky, trees were black and arthritic with branches bent in pain, and the grass was drowning. Far worse, the
Continue reading...
Time moves at the same rate no matter what we do, but now it feels like a tortoise crossing the road. Time is moving the way it does during the second half of an exercise class or the last ten minutes of math (or statistics or physics.) It’s almost like 4:00pm with a baby. You’re
Continue reading...
To be real. Totally you is one of the best gifts you can give your children because it gives them permission to be true too. If my dad were alive, I would thank him for never acting like anyone else. Growing up I didn’t appreciate his authenticity because it included calling out posers and sharing
Continue reading...
With every endeavor you need a special place where you can be you. A nook suited to your temperament so you can thrive. Your mission control. My special space for writing includes a room with pin-drop silence, sunlight, and a view of our garden. Otherwise, I can’t do my best or sometimes even do at all.
Continue reading...
Let’s send a letter to Santa, a grown up Christmas list. It’s not too late. The coolest part is you’ll get an answer. It may be from an employee of the US Postal Service, but he or she could be in touch with Santa. It’s possible. Here’s my letter to merry St. Nick. Dear Santa, Thank
Continue reading...
While I don’t believe in prescriptions for living, I do believe in quiet space and rocking chairs. They free your mind and open your heart. One of my best investments in comfort is the solid rocking chair on our porch that sits facing east for the new day. Most mornings I step outside to an
Continue reading...
One of my professors has a cynical view of love and healing, as if the power of love for emotional renewal is magical thinking. I thoroughly disagree. Love is the very best medicine we have. Some of us need manufactured drugs, and I take a fistful of vitamin supplements in the morning along with a
Continue reading...
Thanksgiving is around the corner. Before you know it, we’ll be making New Year’s resolutions to lose the holiday weight, or just the weight. Or exercise or be more organized. There were years I made lists, imagining I could accomplish more than one thing. After careful consideration, I decided to cast off making resolutions last
Continue reading...