I’m getting ready to take a walk this summer – a very long walk. In fact, I’m planning to walk around the world. I won’t be doing this alone. I’ll be with a group of women who work out at the Curves in Chanhassen. Curves often sponsors events and activities that give us extra incentive to keep up or ramp up our exercising. Sometimes it’s a game, such as Bingo cards in which each square says something like “Work out three times this week” or [...]
I laughed as I read the email, which began, “Dear Secretary of Nice.” The email was from a friend who’s also a regular reader of my column, and her salutation was a reference to a column I wrote a month ago, in which I suggested we could do with a “Department of Nice” in the federal government. And I assigned myself to be in charge of it. That idea came from a recent conversation with my husband and daughter. We were discussing the upcoming presidential [...]
I’m going to get the “Full Disclosure” business out of the way right up front. Since my husband and I grew up in the Chicago area and still have family ties there, it’s Chicago sports teams that we cheer for. Also, I’m not a super-sports-fan to begin with. I enjoy watching the games with family and friends, but it’s the social aspect, not the sport itself, that I’m most interested in. All of this is to explain that even though I – like so many [...]
As always, I spent some time thinking about what my New Year’s Resolution/s would be this year. Part of this process was reviewing my resolutions from the last few years – which is easy for me to do since I devote a column every year to the subject. It’s become a stroll down Memory Lane for me, as well as a good analytical tool. I can see which resolutions became habits and routines that I still follow today, as well as ones that I’m still [...]
It happened again. I taught a class one evening this week, and it was a presentation I’ve been preparing for and looking forward to for quite a while. But two nights before the program, I had a dream in which the class was about to begin, and I suddenly realized that I didn’t have any of my notes or materials with me. In a moment of panic, I briefly considered driving home and returning with everything I needed, but I didn’t have enough time to [...]
“Choose. It’s all up to you, so choose.” That was the bottom line to a conversation I had with a friend recently. The conversation was a seasonal one, and a typical one. It had to do with the coming of winter – the snow, the cold, the wind, and the darkness that comes earlier and earlier every day. Plus the crowded stores, the rush and crush of the holiday season, and the endless messages, everywhere you turn, to buy, buy, buy. I reminded my friend [...]
I’ve decided to go back to school. Not for a Masters or Doctorate degree, and not by attending classes along with other students, or by taking classes online and working independently. Instead, I’m designing and following my own curriculum. The reason I’m doing this is that it occurred to me recently that there are a number of activities and events I’m involved in – both personal and professional – that I am having trouble accomplishing for various reasons. My big revelation was that many of [...]
I had a medical procedure done this week, one of those “preventive maintenance” tests that should be done every so often – in this case, every ten years – once we reach a certain age. Preparing for it required following a low-fiber diet for five days. I could eat plenty of white bread, rice, and potatoes, but no whole wheat products or high-fiber cereals. Canned fruits and cooked vegetables were okay, but fresh fruits and raw vegetables were not. This was very unsettling to me. [...]
Three things. There seems to be something magical about three things – at least when it comes to getting things done. Like many people, I make daily To-Do lists, and I have a love/hate relationship with them. They help me plan and organize my day, but they often seem like an albatross around my neck, weighing me down with too much to do, not enough time to do it, and the guilt and frustration of not getting everything on my list done by the end [...]