"The whales are here!" texted our Maui friend as we prepared for a family vacation on that beautiful island. So, of course, we booked a whale watch tour through the concierge at our accommodation. "Before you go, come get towels from us," the concierge suggested, "because you'll get wet." Our . . .
When a story engages me from the first page, when I can't wait to see what happens next and when I'm sorry to see it end? That's a book I want to tell you about. Marriage Unarranged, authored by my social media friend Ritu Bhathal is set in an Indian community in England. I love all things Indian, . . .
It's always interesting to see opinions fly on social media and folks had a lot to say about the Super Bowl halftime show. It's always dangerous to wade into waters that are fraught with people who do not read, do not understand nuance and who are coming from some agenda. But wade in I must. But . . .
First, I want to send warm wishes and love to Rebecca Olkowski with BabyBoomster.com, who is having a rough week. Her partner of 15 years is now in at-home hospice care for Pancreatic cancer. As you can imagine, she hasn’t been able to focus on writing this week. Instead, she wanted to share a . . .
Every morning I turn the TV on to a cable news channel to make sure the world hasn't ended. And then, I turn on the weather. Or my DVR. Or music. Or I read. Because, and this is sad for a journalism major to say, the best diet for peace of mind today is a news-free one. The constant jabber of the . . .
I wasn't always a cruiser. Oh, I went to Alaska in 2002 with a girlfriend on a big cruise ship with a couple thousand passengers. I didn't dislike it but I didn't fall in love with that cruise vacation. Or cruising in general. It was my husband, an experienced ocean cruiser, who introduced me to . . .
Oh, I know, vision boards may seem kind of, well, ethereal. Are they worth making? Do they really work? And how the heck do I create one? First, I'll confess that I've been making vision boards for nearly two decades and yes, they work. Yes yes yes. They work because the act of making one, of . . .
Every time I think my family has the corner on dysfunction I learn that other families I know have it even worse. From publicly throwing each other under the bus to sexual abuse and elder abuse, some families are all about darkness. I used to think about my crazy family dynamic more than I do now. . . .
We've just finished the winter holidays and poof! The day of love is approaching. We've never needed love more than we do now, don't you think? So, why not make Valentine's Day a time to spread love among everyone you care about--mother, grandmother, sister, BFF--all those you love. And I've got . . .
If you feel guilty because you're a writer who isn't writing, an artist who isn't making art--let it go. You are creating the time and space that will spark ideas and inspire new directions. You're "gathering data." Our traditional work ethic says we have to be "doing something" every minute or . . .
