Blog
I launched my blog in 2009 when I was wrestling with a midlife crisis. Since then, the digital world has changed so much. I was new to both Facebook and Twitter when I started blogging, and I was still rocking the BlackBerry for email. Instagram hadn’t launched yet. Podcasting and short videos are what the cool kids do these days, blogging is considered old fashioned. But I still find it the best way to share my thoughts and to profile people who inspire me.
I hope you’ll find something here that inspires you, or at least sparks a conversation. Some of my favorite posts are pinned to the top, scroll down a bit more to find the most recent, or check out the categories in the sidebar.
When we met to discuss our 2015 goals, my friend Amanda helped me see a life’s purpose right there in front of me when she pointed out how much pleasure I get hosting parties.
She pointed to the frequent events I plan, from living room concerts to spaghetti dinners, and said those gatherings are making people’s lives better. I am bringing people joy by giving them experiences they wouldn’t otherwise have and connecting them with other interesting people.
I’ve really been feeling the love lately.
More accurately, I’ve been hearing the love.
I have been conscious recently of how many of our friends will give me a big hug and say, “I love you” or maybe more often “I love you guys,” wrapping me and John into the declaration of affection.
I’m planning a day-long marketing workshop with a friend who is, among other things, an improv actress. If you know nothing else about improvisation, you might recognize the foundational concept of “Yes, and,” which encourages actors to accept what others do on stage and build on it. Everything about the creation of this marketing workshop we’re calling “Learning to market yourself…
I tried my first cleanse last year and I’m giving it another go to reboot my eating habits after the indulgence of Mardi Gras and our shared birthday month.
Michael Carroll, business coach and author of Awake At Work, suggested five ways to create balance at work, making work a more pleasant environment as an important part of our lives instead of only something to be shoved back to make room for life.
Oh, Master grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul.
John and I recently mailed our last batch of New Year’s cards, which we do instead of Christmas cards. Every pile of hand-addressed envelopes we dropped in the mailbox made my heart feel good, sending good wishes to some of our closest loved ones and some new friends. So when I saw this call from my friend Lauree Ostrofsky to reclaim the elementary…
Lately I’ve been toying with letting my natural color, including the gray, grow in.
I’ve read a number of fashion stories saying there’s a trend in women going gray intentionally. I subscribed to a blog called Revolution Gray that gives pointers on how to do it, including adjusting your makeup and hair products accordingly.
But I struggle more with giving up being a redhead, which has been part of my identity my entire adult life, than I do with going gray.
What seems like a good time to reassess can also bring us to a screeching halt, energy wise.
If you are assessing EVERYthing too much (if you’re not sure, just ask your spouse or best friend who will happily tell you if you are!), you might find you are only ruminating and getting nowhere fast. A better way to get a grip on whether your life is heading in the right direction is to try a few exercises.
There is so much about visiting New Orleans that feels to me like that moment in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy lands in Oz and her world transforms from black and white to color. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6D8PAGelN8] One of the things that strikes me most is the colorful paint jobs so many of the houses wear. Yes, houses in some other cities have…
To: Antonio Gomez, new owner of the Waterfront Ale House in Brooklyn From: Colleen Newvine, a patron who lives in the neighborhood Dear Antonio, You recently took ownership of an institution in our neighborhood and many of us are holding our breath to see what you do with it. I haven’t been going to the Waterfront for two decades like some of the devoted…
When your significant other talks to you, how do you respond? How do your heart and head feel when you answer? Do you answer?
It’s a chilly, grey November day, and summer tomatoes are long gone. But thanks to a recent day spent in the kitchen, I’m making spaghetti sauce tonight from local, late summer tomatoes. John and I began hosting monthly spaghetti suppers in September last year, and making homemade sauce is one of my jobs for the night. I’ve experimented with various…
John and I use the shorthand of referring to our “big rocks” — what are the priority items in our lives that we should attend to before anything else? It’s a term we borrowed from this story about putting the big rocks in the jar first or there won’t be room: This post from Zen Habits is a great reminder…
I am far from having all of life’s answers — in fact, as I get older, I think my list of questions keeps growing — but I do think there’s value in acknowledging what life experience has taught me. Shortly after I turned 40, I kicked off a blog series here called “Things I Have Learned.” I started with 40 things I…