Inspiration
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NOT ENOUGH
Recently, Khloe Kardashian, 41, announced what she has done–so far–to make herself more beautiful: nose job, laser hair removal, chin implant, lip fillers, Botox, salmon sperm-facials, (yup) and soft-wave laser planing to tighten her skin. One wonders what more she’ll have done, or have to re-do, by the time she’s my age. The example she… Read more
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DEPENDENT ON INDEPENCE
There is a line in the Declaration of Independence that has long intrigued me: “all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” It intrigues me because of the truth of it. We do suffer, and… Read more
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WHY DREAM?
Poet Langston Hughes once wrote, “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” Where would we be without our dreams? They keep us buoyed with hope, consolidate our memories and help transform our emotional distress into resilience. Without them, what is there to look forward to? Dreams are… Read more
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PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM
I spend many hours here as my fingers tease melodies out of the keys. Listening to the piano over my lifetime has connected it with so many events that my experience of it has become emotional. Science says that each time I listen, the moments press a sustain pedal in my brain, making the experience… Read more
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WHAT’S WRONG WITH A LITTLE ATTENTION?
In my youth, I was shy and hugely concerned about what others thought. During my first year in college, a professor asked me a question and my reply was so soft that he couldn’t hear my answer. When the guy behind me repeated what I had just said for me, I figured it was time… Read more
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THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU!
I have played pickleball under these signs countless times for several years. Until someone took this picture, I didn’t realize just how many, “NO’s” were above my head. There are nine to be exact. Why didn’t I see them before? Likely it’s because I’m always looking for the “Yes” in things, not the “No.” So, I wonder why… Read more
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CURIOSITY BREEDS CREATIVITY
While I was straining to see inside a woodpecker’s nest, this Kingsnake slid right past my left foot and into this dead, tree trunk. Had it been a rattler, my curiosity might have led to a different outcome! I’ve been curious since I was little and asked a stranger, “Are you a gardener? Your hands… Read more
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NAVIGATING IGNORANCE
For a split second, this upside down sign tricked my eye into thinking the speed limit was 52. A split second is all it takes for a catastrophe. Whether it’s running a red light or removing the wrong organ in surgery, we all slip up. Even worse, the more experienced we are at something, the… Read more
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“We don’t stop playing because we get old. We get old because we stop playing.”–GB Shaw
When was the last time you played or did something spontaneous that wasn’t scripted? Maybe you hung upside down on the monkey bars, flew a kite or pulled a harmless prank on someone. Most adults do not play enough. When I ask clients when they last did something fun, many say, “I don’t remember.” But ‘all work… Read more
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MOTHERS: WHERE WOULD BE WITHOUT THEM?
For two years, I’ve watched a pair of eagles mate and brood. Last year, Jackie waited weeks for her eggs to hatch. When they didn’t, she tried again. This year, three hatched but only two chicks survived. Through inclement weather and attacks by predators, she and Shadow have ceaselessly protected and nurtured them. Soon, the… Read more
AGEFULLY AGING 