Big and Messy
know I am going to ruffle feathers when I say that I could not disagree with it more. I try not to ruffle feathers on Facebook – for me, it’s not the place for that – but if I did, I’d have written an oppositional status that goes like this: “As a mother, I will […]
Read MoreHow Do I Love Thee?
A woman I know once announced that she loved her husband unconditionally. I don’t remember what led up to the announcement, or how I responded, exactly. I might have laughed; I sometimes do that at inopportune moments. I do remember saying, at some point, that my love for my husband was definitely not unconditional. She […]
Read MoreTickling My Amygdala
I wasn’t in a bad mood before it came on, but still, the song was working its magic – as music often does – activating the happy particles of my biological chemistry. There are things that do that, I think, things that touch us on an unconscious level, perform a bit of molecular magic and […]
Read MoreHere to help you get your patriotic on… properly
I got curious about the flag today. I like to display my flag on the 4th of July. I like when other people display their flags on the 4th of July too. In fact, on the 4th of July, I have the sense that we are all in this together, all united, all red, white […]
Read MoreWhat’s Love Got To Do With It?
I just heard another online dating service success story. That makes… a million. Okay, maybe not a million, but it seems that over the last few months, several happy couples (some of them married) have told me that they met online. I remember when there was a certain stigma attached to online dating. We traditional […]
Read MoreWhat takes you back?
The other day, in the grocery store, I heard the Peaches and Herb song, Reunited. I am not crazy about that song, but there was a time (I am somewhat reluctant to admit) when I was. I used to listen to the radio waiting to hear it. (Remember when you used to have to do […]
Read MoreSay cheese!
In my book Beautiful Lives there is a three-legged dog named Outlet who smiles. I wrote him in for excellent dramatic reasons, of course, but also because I am a sucker for a dog that smiles. My dog, Lexi, isn’t really a smiler. More often than not, the camera captures her sad-eyed hound dog expression […]
Read MoreVoluntary (customized!) Simplicity
A couple of weeks ago over Cold Stone ice cream, my friend mentioned an article she’d read about how more and more Americans are adopting simpler lifestyles. In fact, she said, it’s a movement, a philosophy of “voluntary simplicity” by which people are learning the value of less: Less money, less stuff, less jonesing, less […]
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