Where I'm published
-
The family columnist
“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.” ~Stacia Tauscher Using our kids as fodder for Facebook, Instagram, or blog posts is hardly new. Rare are the parents (or grandparents) who don’t share adorable photos of their kids and celebrate their latest achievements online. Before social media took over, I wrote a family column for our local newspapers. Since I was a work-at-home mom, my Sunday column topics often included details about my school-aged son. So it was a thought-provoking exercise for me to revisit those column-writing days in an essay I wrote a few years ago for The Christian Science…
-
How to manage holiday grief and loss
“The holiest of all holidays are those kept by ourselves in silence and apart; the secret anniversaries of the heart.” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow If you’re grieving a loss, holiday festivities can feel especially painful and challenging. Today I’m reposting a previously published feature story I wrote for The Sunday Oakland Press on how to manage holiday grief and loss. EMPTY CHAIRS AT CHRISTMAS, by Cindy La Ferle for The Sunday Oakland Press My mother died three months before Christmas eight years ago. Since my father had passed several years earlier, my first Christmas season without Mom left me feeling orphaned and unmoored. Regardless, I stuffed my sadness and dutifully managed…
-
Why life is better without Facebook
“The biggest problem is that Facebook and Google are these giant feedback loops that give people what they want to hear. And when you use them in a world where your biases are constantly confirmed, you become susceptible to fake news, propaganda, and demagoguery.” ~ Franklin Foer This year I’m celebrating nine happy years of Facebook sobriety. Once I quit, my emotional wellbeing, social life, family relationships, and productivity all improved. I started reading more, writing more, spending more time with friends and neighbors, and enjoying the simple pleasures I had overlooked while I was scrolling for social media updates. Though I wrote this Oakland Press column a couple of…
-
Summer memories: “The Art of Collecting Beach Stones”
“Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.” ~Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty Summer is in full swing. Some of you will be heading for the beach or hitting the highway for a road trip. With that in mind, I’ll revisit a previously published post while I take a short break from Life Lines. Here’s a favorite essay I wrote for Michigan Blue magazine on the art of collecting beach stones. To read it online, please click here. Wherever you live, I hope the sun is shining! ~CL
-
Social Skills 101
“Talk to someone about themselves and they’ll listen for hours.” ~Dale Carnegie Years before Oprah made “life coach” a household term, my father followed the work of Dale Carnegie, one of America’s most prolific authors of self-improvement guides. Dad kept a well-thumbed copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People next to the wingback chair where he read nightly. Today, I believe Carnegie’s advice on how to be a great conversationalist and a thoughtful friend is among the best I’ve found. To read a column I wrote about this topic for The Oakland Press, please click here. Photo by Cindy La Ferle for MediaNews Group
