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Shine on!
“To shine your brightest light is to be who you truly are.” ~Roy T. Bennett The neighbors across the street keep adding to their holiday lights display. Rising in the dark each morning, I see a brilliant show of twinkling icicles and glittering tree branches when I sip my first cup of coffee in my home office, which overlooks our neighborhood. Late November in Michigan is notoriously bleak — and these holiday light displays are a lovely way to cheer things up. I’ve often wondered why people remove them so soon after the new year. The holiday season is the perfect time to talk about shining. Remember: You don’t have…
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Writing Home: My annual shameless plug
“A book has no unwanted calories and you don’t have to worry about sizes as long as the subject matter appeals to the recipient.” ~Sue Grafton Is there a reader on your holiday gift list? The 93 previously published pieces in Writing Home ($16.95) first appeared in a variety of national magazines and newspapers. Though the stories in this collection are personal and written from my heart, they chronicle the victories and losses we all experience as we raise our kids, lose our parents, make a living, and find our way through daily challenges. The late Detroit News columnist, George Cantor, wrote about the book after spending a day visiting my favorite hometown haunts…
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A Thanksgiving conversation primer
“Real conversation can’t happen if listening is just my waiting for you to finish talking.” ~Alan Alda Our social lives took a huge hit during the pandemic. We celebrated birthdays with drive-by parades, limited our holiday gatherings to small family bubbles, and even Zoomed memorial services. Now that our lives are back to near-normal, we look forward to gathering around our holiday tables with friends and family. We’re also rediscovering how to talk to each other after long periods of semi-isolation and social distancing. Not long after the pandemic eased, a friend confided that her social skills suddenly feel a bit “rusty” — especially when she meets new people at larger parties or work functions. No wonder.…
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Inner compass
“Pay close attention to your inner compass. If you stop steering by your own compass, you’ll hit a rumble strip. Don’t panic. Just question your assumptions and you’ll be back on the road in no time.” ~Martha Beck In the 1950s, most women didn’t have the choices we have today. Typically, they married and had kids, stayed home to raise those kids, managed household chores, and followed the cultural norms of the time. Likewise, their husbands climbed into their cars every weekday morning (or evening) and drove to work to support their families. Breaking that pattern isn’t always easy, even today. We humans are creatures of habit. We follow the…
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“Wild Geese”
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination.” — Mary Oliver Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese” touches a tender place in my soul, and I often share it with students in my workshops. It always sparks compelling personal stories and discussions after I read it aloud. As a child in Sunday school, I was terrified of disappointing the punitive, restrictive God portrayed in our leather-covered bibles. No matter how “good” I was, or how closely I followed the rules, I still felt judged and unworthy. Today, I follow my own moral compass, and I try not to allow the judgment of others to overshadow my…
