Life has been busier than usual here – I suspect you can relate? – and I’ve been finding time and opportunities to write harder to come by. I’ve also been lacking the inspiration to turn my thoughts into type. Sure, my mind is racing as quickly as ever, chasing ideas into well worn pockets in [...]
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Let me tell you, it’s a whole lot easier to feel happy during a month when Murphy’s Law is not ruling the day. Nevertheless, I continued to work on my Happiness Project last month and found more success than failure – no matter how hard the fates conspired against me in the guises of constant [...]
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I can’t remember if it was Bruce or Lindsey who first introduced me to the writing of the marvelous Katrina Kenison. But since I know they are both fellow acolytes, I don’t hesitate to thank them jointly for bringing Katrina’s writing into my life. I spent many of my quiet, before-bed hours this past month [...]
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I’ve written before about my lack of resilience, about my inability to bounce back after negative experiences. I’ve never been good about absorbing small losses. Something as slight as being cut off by a rude driver or hearing a snarky comment from a stranger can derail me for hours. But it occurred to me recently [...]
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One year ago today, I published my first blog post. For the first few months, I posted every day. Then I started posting six days a week. Then five. Then three. Now whenever. Those all felt right and this feels right too. For now, at least. I’m not sure what initially drew me to blogging. [...]
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One month into my happiness project, I am surprised and pleased by how much difference a few simple changes have made in my life. Although I’m sure most of you have been on the edge of your seats waiting for my status report (ha!), I suppose some of you might have forgotten the resolutions I [...]
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Her name was Mary. She was just about my age. Mary was a great listener; I could confide in her about anything and she never told a soul. She was far more cooperative than any of my other friends. She always wanted to play the same games as I did and to listen to the [...]
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Last week, while flipping through my high school’s alumni magazine, I happened upon an obituary for a man I’d never heard of and never met. Nevertheless, the details of his life story interested and then inspired me. This gentleman – John – died on December 21, 2009 at the age of 101. But it wasn’t [...]
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I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well. -Diane Ackerman Husband and I are off to the hospital for our big ultrasound appointment. On our way home we’ll be picking up [...]
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I hate surprises. I always have. And it will come as no surprise to most of you that I am a planner and a control freak through and through. To wit: a few weeks before Husband and I got married, friends of ours threw me a surprise bridal shower. The ruse to get me there? [...]
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I mentioned last week when introducing my Happiness Project that I had read a number of enjoyable and inspiring books this summer. One of those was Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. I have been a fan of Michael Pollan’s straightforward, fluid writing about nature and food for awhile. I previously enjoyed several of his [...]
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I just finished reading Julie & Julia, Julie Powell’s blog-turned-book about the year she dedicated to cooking her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I came into the book with high expectations. Eagerly engaged in my own happiness project, I thought I’d be inspired by reading about Julie’s. Moreover, I really [...]
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This week, Country-Fried Mama is hosting a blog carnival to help raise awareness for the Joyful Heart Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 2004 by actress Mariska Hargitay with the mission of helping victims of sexual assault mend their minds, bodies, and spirits and reclaim their lives. According to Country-Fried Mama, “The topic [of the [...]
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I’ve already confessed that I spent far too much time in front of the TV during my weeks of bed-rest. But once the worst of the nausea passed, I started to devour books as quickly as I could get my hands on them. Among my favorites were Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, Colum McCann’s Let the [...]
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Growing up, we had an expression in our family that I think originated with my grandmother: “Bad, but honest.” This expression was usually deployed when a child either readily admitted to a wrongdoing (“Kristen, did you knock over your brother’s Lego tower?”…”Yup!”) or provided an opinion that lacked social grace (a hopeful, smiling “Kristen, do [...]
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Last week I read Kelly Corrigan’s bestselling memoir, The Middle Place. I was deeply moved by Corrigan’s hilarious and heartbreaking account of balancing her roles as daughter, wife, and mother within “the middle place – that sliver of time when childhood and parenthood overlap” and during her battle against breast cancer. But what resonated most [...]
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I know this happens to you too. You’re minding your own business, driving to the library to return a book or sitting on the floor playing Legos with your kids, when suddenly a crystalline memory washes over you. The sights, the smells, the dialogue. It all comes back. Or at least as much as the [...]
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I went to a yoga class last week for the first time in three years. It wasn’t a great class – the teacher seemed distracted and her choice to play contemporary music throughout the class distracted me – but I was happy to be there, doing something for myself and for my body. And delighted [...]
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Just last week I was singing the praises of Gale at Ten Dollar Thoughts, the inspiration for my post on choice. At Ten Dollar Thoughts, Gale writes articulate, reflective, and powerful posts on motherhood, womanhood, and personhood. I always enjoy her writing and her thinking and was delighted when she agreed to do a house [...]
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Have you ever been in the middle of watching a video on YouTube when it suddenly stops playing and a single word fills the frame? Buffering. I’m no tech whiz and I’m not exactly sure what buffering means. What I think it means, what it seems to mean, is that the data is moving from [...]
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Finding balance is elusive. Heck, defining balance is elusive. It occurs to me that balance – like happiness, or presence – might be one of those terms that falls under the Potter Stewart “I know it when I see it” standard. Yup, that’s it, I think: I don’t know how to define balance, but I [...]
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I’m a big fan of Gale’s blog, Ten Dollar Thoughts. Gale is a terrific writer who regularly serves up intelligent, thoughtful, and thought-provoking essays. Last week two of her posts mingled in my mind and got me thinking about Starbucks. Starbucks, you say? Yeah, Starbucks. Stick with me for a moment and you’ll see why. [...]
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My babies are gone. And I don’t know where they went. It’s possible, just possible, that they flew away. That they left their nest because they are ready. That they’re hanging out in one of those bushes at the back of our lawn, still getting flying and foraging lessons from their parents. But they are [...]
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Today it is a real pleasure to welcome to Motherese Bruce Dolin of Privilege of Parenting. A clinical psychologist and parent of two sons, Bruce combines his professional and personal experience with his knowledge of film, philosophy, literature, and art to offer powerful daily posts on how we might become our own best selves through [...]
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I’ve been thinking a lot about happiness lately. Throughout our Raising Happiness book club and beyond, I thought about what makes me happy and when I’m happiest. And of course visions of chubby baby cheeks and Botticellian toddler curls danced in my head. As did cuddling with Husband. Sleeping late. Reading novels. Eating Extreme Moose [...]
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In Season Six of Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw dates my least favorite of her on-screen paramours, Jack Berger. Not least among his transgressions is that he seems to be carrying a torch for his ex-girlfriend, Lauren. Her presence looms large early on in their relationship, in everything from voice mails to the chirping [...]
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When I think about courage, I usually think about courageous acts and the notable people who’ve performed them. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins hurtling into space tethered to a rocket. The unnamed man who stood bravely, his only armor his shirtsleeves, before a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square. Ezell Blair, David Richmond, [...]
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We never cursed in my house growing up. Never. In fact, when I first started hearing curse words in school, I thought these words were new. Recently invented and added to the lexicon. Like “spyware” or “unibrow.” Imagine my surprise when I realized that these words were as old as language itself. To this day, [...]
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