Photo: Halo on a Mountain - taken on 8/29/2018 while hiking in Mt. Rainier National Park. This was one of my favorite days of 2018. What if you were guaranteed an A in the coming year? What's an A? It’s hitting the mark. It’s getting what you want. It's making a difference. What does that [...]
Raise your hand if you read Stone Soup as a kid? I was around seven or eight when I read it and remember being really miffed. I thought it was unfair and didn’t like it. Stone Soup is a fable about hungry strangers who enter a town and tell everyone that they are making stone [...]
Pic: My determined little girl marching off to Pre-K. Aidan Elaine, August 1996 <Repost from 8/2018) My Facebook newsfeed is loaded with adorable pictures of little ones heading off to school, teens hitting the high school circuit and parents dropping their "babies" on college campuses. I remember every phase of my kids' schooling, from [...]
I left my husband of 25 years for another woman. It was someone I had lost touch with. I take the blame. When I last saw her in college, she was a young woman who wanted to travel the globe, first with the Peace Corps, then just for fun. She was going to move to [...]
"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It’s the American way and one of the most recognized statements from The Declaration of Independence. It sets us apart as Americans. You would think with this fundamental right, we would be the happiest country on the planet. But that’s just not so. Happiness is not only out [...]
(Photo: Summer 2016 - somewhere on the Aegean Sea.) Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are [...]
I didn’t appreciate the magnitude of the Hoover Dam until I saw it with my own eyes. Did you know that the Hoover Dam supplies enough electricity to serve 1.3 million people? Neither did I. You can’t really see where all the magic happens from this picture, but it’s all there… under the mountains of [...]
In the 6th grade, I took a lifesaving class at my local park. One of the first things I learned was the importance of the “dead man’s float.” I am sure you’ve done this a time or two…put your face in the water and just floated on your belly with arms and legs dangling. It [...]
Mom’s Day is this Sunday. In honor of the moms out there: to the ones with children of their own and the ones who mother other people’s children, Thank You! The world is a better place because of you. This is a tribute to some of the moms that have corralled, guided and loved me [...]
I meet amazing women every day. I am drawn to women who are bold, courageous and smart. It helps if they are good dancers as well. There was always something about Patti Foster that intrigued me. I first met Patti in dance class, Dancefix. Dancefix is a high-energy dance class that draws people from all [...]
