Finding Courage in These Fearful Times

Years ago, Gavin de Becker, the well-known security expert, wrote a book called The Gift of Fear. The focus of the book was on the small voice inside all of us that often serves as a warning about imminent danger. It’s the voice that floats outside our thoughts, that lives in our gut, that...

Cristina Ferrare’s Cream of Tomato Soup with Homemade Ricotta Cheese & Arugula Pesto

As far as soups go this is my favorite soup to make, serve and eat! (It's in my new cookbook, Food for Thought out on December 4.) It’s basically a very simple and quick tomato sauce for pasta, omelets, and baked dishes such as chicken or fish. The big bonus here is that this recipe ...

Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper: Healing Our Nation Starts From Within

If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world. — Chinese ...

How to Bridge Our Divides By Owning Our Experiences

We are living in a time of shadows. What is ugly in our world is rising out of the basement where we have locked it up for a long time. Countries, communities, and individuals are divided into extremes: left and right, rich and poor, citizen and foreigner, Muslim and Christian, ruler and reb...

The Power Behind Asking Yourself, “What Do I Want?”

I am big a believer in saying what you mean and meaning what you say. My delivery can come off blunt and direct, especially when I am asked for my opinion on something related to relationship, career and life advice. The shy, awkward and timid, 12 year old me would be incredibly shocked to f...

Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper: Where There Is Anger, There Is Hope

The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life. — Jane Addams   I know many of you are waking up feeling enraged, angry, frustrated and disillusioned this morning. Meanwhile, others of you feel th...

Author Anne Lamott Helps Us Find the Hope Buried Within Each of Us

Some days there seems to be little reason for hope, in our families, cities, and world. Well, except for almost everything. The seasons change, a bone mends, Santa Rosa rebuilds after the fire. In the days after a cataclysmic school shooting, thousands of students took to the streets and the...

Bob Goff Shows Kids How to Find Hope and Faith in Their Daily Lives

(The following is an excerpt from Love Does For Kids, by Bob Goff) Our family’s experience making friends all across the world began with some postage stamps—236 stamps, to be exact. On September 11, 2001, something scary happened in the world. Some people decided to hurt others by...

The Mother Pac Hopes to Build the Political Power of Oregon Mothers

The Mother PAC, a political action committee, was created by mothers and is a sister organization to Family Forward Action, an advocacy organization focused on building the political power of Oregon mothers. Their mission is to elect more pro-equity and pro-family decision-makers. By pooling...

Between Men and Women, Where is the Hope?

Tension runs high between the sexes as women are attacked on the national level.   I found hope for the relations between men and women at a table on a sidewalk. Six people were sitting at the table, both benches filled, no room for any others. There was tension, even though everyo...