On the Bright Side

The old adage about one door closing and another opening proved true. After my rejection from graduate school, I started looking in other directions for ways to continue my quest for growth. I stumbled upon a fellowship opportunity to study at Oxford this summer in England and **spoiler alert ** I got it! My inner critic reached for her bull horn, but changed gears and merely whispered instead, maybe just don’t announce this pipe dream... let the chips fall where they may, but GO FOR IT! I have to say I’ve become pretty adept at redirecting the negative talk. Go for it was about to be followed up by you probably won’t get it anyway and, like a New Age Ninja, I swiftly cut that thought off at the pass. The funny thing was how I did it. I’d been sitting at the park with my dog. It’s become a favorite meditation practice for me, practice being the operative word because stopping the inner chatter in this head is like herding cats. The battle between my positive side and my negative s...

Ants are busy little creatures! I never understood the attraction of ant farms, but now I get it. I was having one of those days where you can’t win for losing, the culmination of which was locking my keys in my car at the end of a very long day. As I approached my car, all I could think about was the steaming hot cup of chai tea I would be sipping in a nice, short twenty minutes. As I place my bag on the passenger side seat and closed the door, I knew my keys were in the bag. But they operate on a sensor which is not supposed to let them get locked in the car. They never had before; there was no reason to think the doors would lock then. But they did. Despite my efforts to will the key fob to recognize that I was trying to open the door, the doors remained locked and I was stuck, staring into a locked car, my keys poking out of my bag mocking my haste. Now, not only did I have to wait for someone from home to battle the rush hour traffic to bring me the extra set of keys from home, ...

        The history of Valentine’s Day is not without debate.  There are several versions floating around and all admit they are not certain.  There are a few commonly accepted stories, however.  We do know that there was a Roman priest in the third century A.D. who defied the orders of then Roman Emperor Claudius II by conducting illegal marriages.  At the time, the Roman Empire was nearing the end of its glorious 200 year heyday Pax Romana and Claudius, fearing the impending doom, needed to maintain a strong standing army to defend against all of the outsiders who stood in line to invade the most prosperous empire on the planet.  Drafting married men was already illegal in the empire, thus, believing young single men would be most fit to serve, Claudius made it illegal for young men to marry.  A dissenting priest named Valentine defied the emperor’s orders and continued to marry young lovers.  He was jailed and later sentenced...

Writing this column for the past ten years has been a symbiotic way for me to examine life’s little twists and turns, while hopefully providing insight and entertainment to readers as well. But last month, when life threw me a disappointing curveball, I really had to dig deep to find the bright side. It wasn’t the end of the world or anything; Just a huge, completely unexpected blow to my ego and my game plan, that had me walking around in a fog for about a day and a half. Particularly unnerving was how much time I spent deciding to take the plunge. For the better part of the last two years I’ve been toying with the idea of going back to school. I’ve taken classes, visited schools, interviewed professionals and professors weighing pros and cons; doctorate versus masters; writing versus history; now versus later. Only to make up my mind, put all of my eggs in one basket (In know!) only to be told, “Thank you for your interest.....Take a hike, sister.” I was so sure I was on the rig...

I always loved the intention of Thanksgiving as a holiday. A day dedicated to gratitude for the many bounties we are blessed to receive in this great country of ours. What a beautiful concept. We have our ups and downs, but relatively speaking it is difficult to argue that Americans have a lot to be grateful for. And while the history teacher in me cannot ignore that native Americans would rightfully put forth an opposing view here, the spirit of the day was inspired during a brief harmonious time when the newcomers and the natives shared similar goals. Fast forwarding to modern times, taking time out to appreciate what we have still seems like an honorable practice. Additionally, Thanksgiving now kicks off one of the most consumer driven seasons known to man. So as we’re ingesting more food than we were ever meant to in one sitting, let us give thanks and perhaps try to look inside to see what it is we really want for ourselves and for others in the upcoming holiday season. From t...

I came across this little nugget in one of my early morning, coffee enhanced Facebook crawls. Among all of the First Day of School photos, recipes and off-color, but often hilarious Someecards cartoons (my favorite is, “I’d rather make new friends than help you move”), I saw this on someone’s wall: “You don’t choose your dreams, they choose you!” I liked it. The idea that fate is somehow at the helm is a reminder that we need to listen to our hearts and be open as life presents us with opportunities. It’s not always easy. Especially for young people. My son, who is entering his senior year in college, came home for a visit this summer. When I asked him about school he was dismissive and a little irritable. After several days of Master-Mom super sleuthing, I finally pulled it out of him: He didn’t think he really liked where his major was taking him and he regretted not following his heart early on. Like so many others his age, he neglected his true self to pursue a major that was ...

When my husband came home with a Corvette on his birthday last December I gently teased him about his midlife crisis. I mean, it was certified pre-owned, not brand new, so I wasn’t that concerned.Then, to his credit, he reminded me that I had just enrolled in a Master’s program that, by the way, has nothing to do with my current career. It is just for ME! Events like these have been occurring with more and more frequency over the past few years and have me wondering about the fabled midlife crisis that we’re so familiar with in our culture. New sports car - ‘check’; new hobby - ‘check’; empty nest - ‘check’; noticeable physical changes -‘check’; Admittedly there have been some fun things, such as acting like college students more than when we were in college; and some not so fun things, like not seeing eye-to-eye on what the “next phase” of life should look like. But, like anything else, it is a stage of life that we will traverse. Ready or not, here it comes.  I am no st...