Blogs

It is my distinct honor to be guest posting today at Karen Maezen Miller’s beautiful site, Cheerio Road. Karen’s book, Hand Wash Cold, is among those that have most moved and touched me in the last few years, and I’ve come to think of her as one of my teachers, one of my shepherds.

What a week it’s been for me with these women whose words and thinking shepherds me (even though...

The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms. – Socrates

We were visiting friends at the beach this past week, and at one point I was with Grace in the ocean. Despite the heat of the day, the water was cold, and we were standing right at the edge of the waves’ breaking, tip-toeing in slowly. Suddenly a really big wave came and Grace was standing in just the wrong place....

I’ve watched this many times now. Each time I end up with tears rolling down my face. It’s worth the time to watch it.

We all need someone who thinks we’re truly amazing. I know this as much as I know anything. I think, again, to Bindu’s excellent post several months ago that said clearly that “constructive criticism” is not friendship and that everything we really need will come to us in...

I loved Martha’ McPhee’s Dear Money. The book’s voice is funny and smart, its observations nuanced and searing. Martha’s thoughtful commentary is both right on the money (as it were) and somewhat scary. There is so much in Dear Money that made me smile with wry identification, so many details that rang true from both the deliberately non-flashy Maine coastal life and from the deliberately oh-so-flashy Manhattan finance world.

As I...

I have been thinking nonstop about Anne Lamott’s piece, about our true wealth being this moment, this hour, this day. As usual, she is basically the oracle to me, among my wisest and most impactful teachers. I agree with her initial assertion “that there is nothing you can buy, achieve, own, or rent that can fill up that hunger inside for a sense of fulfillment and wonder.” She herself says...

There is no way for me to adequately convey my admiration, respect – hell, sheer hero-worship of – for Anne Lamott. This essay could have been crafted from my own thoughts. Admittedly, she took my fractured, ugly, disjointed thoughts and fashioned them into beautiful whole cloth. But what else is new.

She also cites something I’ve long believed, which is that we make time for that which is really important. If...

What is authenticity? What is the truest expression of self? What do I really want? Who am I, at my deepest core?

It’s awfully easy to lose sight of these things, at least for me, in a world where I feel the competing pressures of dozens of responsibilities and identities every single day. I’m a complicated person to begin with, I think, and that’s exacerbated by and refracted through the all the...

I had lunch on Sunday with four of my dear friends from college. Everybody had a baby with them: one 4.5 month old, 2 2 month olds, and 1 baby in utero 2 days overdue. I had Grace. All of these friends have older children, but on Sunday it was striking to me to look at Grace and look at the babies and see both the wide gulf and the immense...

So I’m a little late to the game with Bindu’s 21.5.800 challenge. Truth is, I wanted to participate, but I don’t like to sign up for things and not do them. That goes against my grain and makes me feel terrible. And I knew I would not deliver on the 5 days of yoga. Then Bindu told me I could do savasana, which sounded an awful lot like Lianne’s advice to...

My mother is afraid of heights. I have many memories of Hilary, Dad, and I climbing to the top of a cathedral or spire in a European city, and looking down from the top to see my mother’s small form waving up at us. I might be turning into her, as I’ve been feeling woozy when at a height lately. I’m feeling the beginnings of vertigo. And not just the vertigo...