The Gift of Giving

Gift giving seems to have changed since the arrival of the pandemic — not to something new but back to the way it used to be. When I was sewing face masks for friends, in early 2020 (remember how hard they were to find online?), homemade cookies, or a roll of toilet paper in a gift bag would appear on my doorstep as a thank you. It was so nice! And lately, I’ve been coming home to find lemons and…

Book Review – The Sun Does Shine

How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row - A memoir by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin - In a case of mistaken identity, a twenty-nine-year-old Black man in Alabama was arrested and charged with two murders even though he was fifteen miles away when they were carried out and had an easily provable alibi. Sound familiar? What happened next beggars belief. It’s everyone’s worst nightmare. But it’s not just a nightmare if you’re poor and Black…

Face Masks – can we help?

Fashion designer, Christian Siriano is redirecting his team to start sewing medical face masks for New York hospital workers. Can we help too? It's got to feel better than watching endless Netflix series, monitoring the news 24/7, or completing a puzzle. It doesn't feel right that our health care workers are risking theirs and their family's lives while we relax on the couch. And it's not okay that they don't have the protective equipment necessary. I began searching the internet…

Creating in a crisis

While poking around in my embarrassingly over-stuffed garage, I came across a box of greeting card stock and envelopes left over from a unprofitable but fun business venture from long ago. Still digging through the hoarders-buried-alive-sized pile of junk where my car should be parked, I also unearthed a forgotten watercolor paint kit that I'd given my husband for his birthday. I decided to spend my first full day of quarantine, an appropriately dark and rainy Saturday, doing something creative.…

Writing While Parenting

Nobody warns you about the weird things you will find yourself doing, just to get writing time, while trying to do a half decent job at parenting your beloved and adorable children. Mine are getting big now (as in over six feet tall), but the younger one isn't driving yet. I do get time to write each day while he's at school, but that needs to be shared between my day job(s) and running household errands. During the summer, all…

A lesson in mindfulness from the Coffee Queen

I sit with my friends Ruth and Warren and our kids on low wooden plank benches. The ground beneath our feet is swept dirt between a tiny house made of mud and reeds, and an open outdoor wooden structure which we’re told is a kitchen. There is no running water, gas, or electricity. I’m lucky enough to be spending Thanksgiving in Africa with my two boys and some close friends. We are in Uganda traveling by Jeep through cities, towns, villages,…

Not inspired, unnerved

I like to post something inspiring when I can. But I'm having trouble this week. I guess we’re all just doing our best to get through each day after the seeing the horrific images and hearing the awful stories from the Las Vegas massacre. The beach side community I live in was well represented at the concert near the Mandalay Bay Hotel on Sunday night. We had moms and dads, off duty police and firefighters, school principals and teachers, sons…

Writing backwards — if it works for Amazon…

Ever wonder how Amazon grew to be so big and successful, so quickly? One obvious reason is that they have a strong leader with a clear vision. But inspiring more than three hundred thousand employees to think the same way is no easy task. Passion and vision must somehow be systemized when it's magnified onto a grand scale. While Jeff Bezos believes companies shouldn't be ruled by process, he did implement Working Backwards as a way of making sure his…

5 Things I Do For Myself Before Breakfast

If you're thinking I run a half marathon or write 1000 words every morning before 5:00am — I wish, but no, this is not that kind of inspirational post. These are small things I try to do every morning, because for a long time I either forgot or felt too guilty to do anything for myself for days on end. This is so common among women, especially moms. Taking time to care for ourselves is something we all need to…