Sharing the view from a different direction
“It’s a good thing y’all are Yankees,” he told us, “’cause you’re way more organized than we are.” For the record, there were five of us at the meeting. One was a New Jersey native, one was a Midwesterner (that’s me, and you will never find my picture in the dictionary next to the word “organized”), and three were born-and-raised-in-the-South Georgians. Everyone laughed, and no one took offense at the comment. And that felt good. Not only do discussions and [...]
Paying attention to a scary dream
I had a very upsetting dream last night, having to do with my upcoming trip to Uganda. In the dream, I was carpooling to the airport with my friend from Uganda and two others who were going with us. Never mind that I live in Georgia and the others are all in Minnesota. At some point, I thought about my passport, which I had put in my suitcase as soon as I started packing, so I would be sure not [...]
Oprah for President?
Like many people, I watched the Golden Globe Awards last Sunday night, and was blown away by Oprah Winfrey’s speech as she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement. It was inspiring, empowering, and it made me feel as though, yes, a new day is dawning, and the world is about to change for the better. At no point did it occur to me, however, that this was a political speech, or the launch of a political career [...]
A New Year Filled with Faith
I’m one of those people who still makes New Year’s Resolutions, and they’ve always been the subject of one of my columns each year – a practice I plan to continue with my blog. When I sat down to write this morning, I was all set to write about my resolution to deal with “unfinished business” – projects started but not completed, unanswered email, and some boxes and bins that still haven’t been unpacked from our move. But then I [...]
A simple solution to a Christmas dilemma
I was on the treadmill at the health club the other day. Two women near me were talking about their holiday plans and preparations. One of them was going through the list of people she still needed to buy gifts for, and saying how difficult it was to figure out what to buy for her young nieces and nephews. Plus, she had to ship some of the gifts, and she wasn’t looking forward to standing in line at the post [...]