Category: Uncategorized

Aug 2022   I woke up this morning in a ditch. Not an actual ditch, thank goodness. My life isn’t Peaky Blinders. But I was in an emotional ditch created by a series of challenging moments that were eating away at my solid footing. Most of those moments were beyond my control, and none of […]

July 2022   As I write this month’s missive, our family beach vacation in Greece is coming to an end. We’ve traveled here every year, adding new family members to the trip as our children find partners and begin their own families. Each gathering has its own cadence; its own highlights, its own challenges and […]

June 2022   Who lives next door? When I was about seven years old and learning to ride my “big girl bike,” I forgot how to use the brakes. Looking around for anything that would slow my momentum, I grabbed hold of the chainlink fence that lined our sidewalk, just in time to stop myself […]

May 2022   When I was 17 years old, a senior at Lakeside High School in Seattle, I took a philosophy course taught by an epic professor, Jim Wichterman. We spent weeks developing an understanding of the ideas brought to life by great thinkers like Kant, Descartes and Mill. We debated the possibility of living […]

April 2022   Let me set the scene Two middle-aged people are set up on a blind date. She’s a busy advertising executive and he’s a businessman in town for a bunch of meetings. They block out 30 minutes to grab a cup of coffee and he’s 10 minutes late. One quick cappuccino later, she […]

March 2022   I think of myself as being born in the spring, because I remember birthdays in Seattle when the crocuses pushed themselves out of the earth, the cherry trees burst into bloom, and the camellias blossomed in pink and in white all along Cascadia Avenue. But my mother reminds me that on the […]

February 2022 Where do you get your information and stimulation these days? Who do you talk to, what do you read, where do you scroll, when do you listen and how do you follow events? Beyond that, who do you block, unfollow, cancel or tune out? Now, more than ever, our content shapes what we […]

January 2022 Let’s play a game. What do these four things have in common? A 200-page hardbound coffee table book about a clothing company, gift wrapped and delivered overnight by FedEx A fancy package tied with yards of green silk ribbon containing Lucite coasters and a plaid blanket emblazoned with the name of a bank […]

December 2021 Close your eyes for a minute. Imagine yourself in the center of a stadium filled with screaming sports fans who are there to watch you try to set a new world record for the long jump. Your heart is thumping and it’s nearly impossible to hear above the din. You accelerate in sixteen […]

November 2021 Less than two months ago, my daughter Lauren and her husband Patrick welcomed Etta into the world. Of course I think she is the most perfect baby ever, and she had me wrapped around her finger from the first breath. But rather than “Grandma,” I chose to have her call me Lovey. To […]