change

My sister and I always felt connected through our friends and family apps on our phones. Sometimes, we’d text each other about where we could see each other. “How is Spain?” I’d ask. Or she’d say, “Welcome home,” after I returned from a trip. So the day her husband finally turned off her phone and [...]

Let go, celebrate life, and allow joy. I didn’t notice how hard my year had been until I started on the final edit of my book, Follow Me Here. It all started last May, my favorite month of the year. Behind the scenes of everyday life, I would discover what grief feels like. It began [...]

I was ready to record a batch of videos. I always write a bunch of scripts and record all the videos at one time. That way, I only have to do the setup once. After forty-five minutes of setup time, I was ready to begin. But my test video was beyond terrible. The lighting was [...]

I have renewed respect for anyone who has cleaned out a parent’s home. And a renewed determination to try to make it easier for my children when the time comes. Recently, we moved our mom to a personal care room. It’s lovely, she’s happy, but it is the size of a hotel room. She lived [...]

AI, Prayer, and Jolts Who are we but the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves, and believe? —Scott Turow AI is the buzzword we hear everywhere these days. But of course, we have been using forms of artificial intelligence for years, from GPS to Fitbits to editing programs. Actually, the list is endless. ChatGPT has [...]

The radio and then TV show This Is Your Life was designed to show people that they had many people who cared about them, had a bright future, and had made a difference in people’s lives. Intentional or not. But it did something else. It showed how seldom life turns out how we thought it [...]

I know habits and preconceived perceptions can make us blind to the obvious. However, I thought that I usually have a good grip on paying attention. I enjoy exploring ways to be more effective and finding easier ways to do things that need to be done. So it both surprised and dismayed me that I [...]

Sometimes we—thinking we are human—make things so complicated. And really, it’s not. I believe if we could all put into place a few basic principles, then solutions would be found that would unravel all the issues we face. Of course, we’d have to do it together. We’d have to agree. And often, that seems impossible. [...]

Have you spoken to a tree lately? If not, perhaps take a moment and have a chat with one. It doesn’t matter the size or shape. Just find a tree and have a talk. If you hear nothing. Imagine that you do. It opens the door to your inner ear and it will have spoken [...]

We are not designed to live in ruts, but we do. In some ways, this is a good thing. We don’t have to think too hard about how to get through our day. But when our thinking, and therefore our lives, takes place within deep ruts, and we don’t realize it—it’s a dangerous thing. Living [...]

One day, the magnificent multi-trunked tree in our backyard gave us a warning. We came home from our early morning shopping, and one of its massive trunks had fallen. It chose to fall quietly when no one was home so the sound it made would not frighten anyone. It hurt nothing. Not a single branch [...]

One morning, while writing my next book, I looked up and saw a man jogging down our road. Years of teaching dance kicked in, and I said to him—in my thoughts only—”Lead with your pelvis, not your head.” Laughing at myself for still having that habit of correcting movement, I thought back to when I [...]

…we are not afraid of the dark… Every morning I sweep our hardwood floors, following the path of where we most go each day, and once a week I sweep the entire house. I didn’t use to do that daily sweeping. Then one morning, I noticed what was in the light path that shone across [...]

We’ll never complete anything, never climb a hill, never figure out something we don’t know how to do until we get started. And sometimes the thing that looks the most daunting is actually the most creative. Fearing what might happen or not happen is a shadow.

I was trying to print out something, but I didn’t hear it printing in the next room. Since it was a new program, and I had already judged it to be “behind the times,” I figured it was the program and didn’t check the printer. It took two days and multiple tries before I checked [...]

Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences. — Robert Louis Stevenson How many times have you tried to change someone, or even yourself, and failed miserably? Without knowing a single thing about what happened or what you were trying to do, I know why it probably didn’t work as well as [...]

I’m a design show junkie. Fashion design, furniture design, house design, garden design, food design, even Lego design. Who cares what it is? When I find a design show to watch, I get all tingly and excited. Watching the creative process is exhilarating and inspiring. And some designs that come out of that process are [...]

After I pulled out the peas I had diligently planted and tended because their season was over, a lone sunflower remained. I smiled at it, wondering how it got there. Perhaps a bird or a squirrel or even the wind left a single seed to grow sheltered and nourished by the peas. It smiled back [...]

This might help— I don’t think I want to meet the person who knows all the answers. I believe I would be suspicious. How could they be so sure? Did they cause the problem? Are they trying to ruin people’s lives? Do they know all the facts? Our brains are designed to filter out what [...]

I opened the drawer where I keep candles and flashlights and realized that I still had two beautiful scented candles waiting for me to use them. It reminded me of my mother’s candle drawer. Actually, not just one drawer, two big ones stuffed with candles of all sizes and shapes. She never lights them. Even [...]

Fixing broken things is not an activity that most of us enjoy. The plastic knob on my mixer broke off, and I didn’t celebrate that I would need glue, a clamp, and time to fix it. What I said to myself was, “I can live with it. Who needs a knob anyway?” But the shower [...]

On the way to yoga, I saw a man walking down the street proudly displaying his political affiliation. It was not mine. So for a split second, I judged him. And then I judged myself for judging him. A few blocks away, I stopped judging us both and thought about perception. Yes, my favorite topic. [...]

The answer is yes; you’re probably doing everything backwards. Which makes life much harder than it needs to be. It’s time to stop working against ourselves. The way to do that is to be flexible before strong. I mean this both literally and figuratively. I’m serious. Being a business and life coach for almost thirty [...]

Shifting Stories: Sampling Books, One (or 2) Chapters at a time. I choose, therefore I am. —Amit Goswami, The Self-Aware Universe I wanted to change the world. But I found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself. —Aldous Huxley We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go [...]