A friend of mine, who is a school principal as well as a mom, was talking recently about how crazy and hectic May is. That reminded me of a column I wrote years ago, when my kids were still in school. I dug it out of my files and sent a copy to my friend and a few other moms – who said it described their lives right now, too. So if you’re a mom who’s just about at the end of her rope by [...]
I had just finished a presentation for the staff at a Senior Living Community, when one of the attendees came up to me and said, “You know, you could be a pastor.” I was flattered by her words, and more than a little surprised. No one’s ever said anything like that before. People have told me they were inspired or motivated by my programs, or that I gave them a new way of thinking or looking at things. Some later told me of changes they [...]
A friend of mine was a Hall of Fame gymnast back in her college days. This came up recently while we were discussing something that’s been in the news a lot lately – the powerful and addictive pain medications often prescribed for severe injuries, or surgery to treat those injuries. The kind that many athletes incur, as well as entertainers such as Prince whose acrobatics on stage can be just as demanding on their bodies, and can cause just as much damage. That’s not the [...]
I got a strong dose of motivation and inspiration over the weekend. It happens every year around this time, which is when our Toastmasters District holds its Spring Convention. A highlight of the convention is the International Speech Contest, which brings together the winners of ten Division contests. These are people who have already won at three levels of competition, so you can imagine how polished and persuasive their speeches are by the time they reach the District level. What I’ve always found fascinating is [...]
“Where were you when you heard the news?” Only a few historical events evoke that question, events of such magnitude that people remember exactly where they were and what they were doing at the time. The bombing of Pearl Harbor. The assassination of JFK. The attack on the Twin Towers. And now there’s another one. The death of Prince won’t be in the history books in the same way as those other events, but – especially for Minnesotans, and in particular those of us living [...]
It is our most debilitating weakness that often turns into our greatest strength. Our most shameful secrets that bring about our most lasting peace. And our deepest sorrows that lead to our greatest joys. But not until we share them. For most of us, this goes against every instinct we have. The awful experiences in our past – whether they are things we’ve done, things others have done to us, or devastating and embarrassing events that just happened – the last thing we want to [...]
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 [...]
“Guess what? It’s snowing outside!” When I was young, that’s the greeting my sisters and I woke up to every year on April 1st. Mom would come into our bedrooms with the exciting news, but before we could jump out of bed and race to the window to see for ourselves, she’d add, “April Fool!” By then we were awake enough to realize for ourselves that we were now in the month of April. And it never snowed in April. April 1st came and went [...]
“Do you know what today is?” my sister asked when she called me Sunday evening. “Besides Easter, I mean.” Did I forget someone’s birthday, or another special occasion? I immediately ran through my mental list. March 27. Nothing rang a bell. “The tornado,” she said. “Today is the 25th anniversary of the tornado.” She didn’t need to say any more than that. I immediately recalled the day, 25 years ago, when the town we lived in was devastated by a tornado that ripped through the [...]
“I want to go back in time and do this over.” That was my response recently when careless inattention caused me to miss one of the most important events of my life. Fortunately, I woke up from the dream I was having, and realized I hadn’t actually missed anything at all. The event was my son’s upcoming wedding. In my dream, it was the day of the wedding and my daughters – I had two in my dream – were out swimming in a neighborhood [...]