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 [...]
“Take some time to stop and smell the roses.” We’re all familiar with this saying, telling us we should take time out from our busy lives to notice and enjoy the good things that are all around us. I’m sure most of us would acknowledge the wisdom of the advice, although few of us probably follow it on a regular basis. I thought about this recently after hearing a friend talk about how much she enjoyed taking walks with her daughter. They would walk along [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The conference officially started at 9:30, but the doors opened at 8:30 for coffee, networking, and shopping – not necessarily in that order. I decided to get there right at 8:30 in order to beat the crowd, but apparently “the crowd” had the same idea. There were over a thousand women at the conference, and it seemed as though most of them were already there when I arrived. The conference I was attending was the second annual WINE Conference, but it had nothing to do [...]
I didn’t know whether it was a bug I picked up, or something I ate, but I spent several days last week being violently ill. Just getting out of bed drained all my energy, the very thought of food made me sick to my stomach, and I couldn’t even read without getting a headache. One of the things that kept going through my mind – besides how achy and uncomfortable I was – was what a waste of time this was. It was bad enough [...]
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 [...]
I remember a time, back in my late 20’s, when I was out with some friends from college. We had stayed close after graduation, and were celebrating the 29th birthday of one of the members of our group. She was a bit quiet and withdrawn that night, and we asked her if anything was wrong. She said she was a little depressed about turning 29, because now she was within a year of her 30th birthday – and 30 meant she was getting old. Even [...]
I spent a lot of time laughing last Sunday. And I still have a smile on my face, just thinking about it. A woman in my writers group had just completed a four-week course in stand-up comedy, and invited us to her “graduation” – a comedy club show in which she and others from her class performed stand-up routines. A number of us from the writers group attended the event, and decided to get together for pizza before the show. Since writers love sharing stories, [...]