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Taking flight, growing strong
“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.” ~Pema Chodron Today’s quote spoke to me in several different ways. First, I thought of all the new college students who’ll soon be starting school — and how leaving the nest for the first time is such a milestone for our kids. The whole process involves facing change and challenges — and learning how to adapt. But Buddhist author Pema Chodron isn’t just referring to young people living on their own for the first time. She uses “the nest” as a metaphor for our comfort zone. No matter how old or young…
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Travel and adventure
“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Now that summer is here, our thoughts turn to road trips and other vacation plans. When I was editor of a country inn travel magazine, I had many opportunities to visit historic sites across this country. And when our son was in his early teens, Doug and I took him on trips to the British Isles and Mediterranean countries. Travel teaches us a lot about ourselves — as well as the world around us. I often discovered that the places I enjoyed most were the charming…
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Compass of the heart
“It is the wilderness in the mind, the desert wastes in the heart, through which one wanders lost and a stranger. When one is a stranger to oneself, then one is estranged from others, too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others.” ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea Anne Morrow Lindbergh earned her reputation as a fearless aviator and explorer. At the same time, the diaries and books she wrote were maps of her emotional journey. In her nonfiction classic, Gift from the Sea, she charted ways to navigate the challenging terrain of marriage, work, and motherhood. We lose ourselves when we spend our…
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Survival guide for grads
At commencement you wear your square-shaped mortarboards. My hope is that from time to time you will let your minds be bold, and wear sombreros.” ~Paul Freund Like most moms, I spent years lecturing my kid on the importance of working hard, eating healthy meals, writing thank-you notes, and ironing his dress shirts. But I neglected to impart other words of wisdom along the way. That’s why I wrote the following list of graduation “survival tips” and shared them in my local newspaper column before my son left home for college in 2004. Big congrats to all the new graduates this season! “A Survival Guide for Grads” *Relationships, like cars,…
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Happy Mother’s Day
“Motherhood is a choice you make everyday, to put someone else’s happiness and well-being ahead of your own, to teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when you’re not sure what the right thing is…and to forgive yourself, over and over again, for doing everything wrong.” ~Donna Ball Photo by Cindy La Ferle
