Holiday traditions have always made my heart beat a little faster—not with excitement, but with stress. Growing up as the seventh of eight children, I spent every December struggling to find gifts and make treats for everyone in the family. Things got easier when I started my own small, nu...
Every time I vote, as I hope we all did last Tuesday, I get a little misty-eyed. For most of history, most people haven’t had voting rights. Feudal systems, slavery, dictatorships, colonialism—so many structures suppressed so many people for so long. When my father was born, American women...
As I write this, the controversy over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh is filling the internet with such fury—from both sides—that I think my computer may explode. The situation feels like a microcosm of all public controversy in a time when technology has given individuals the power to...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHMUgIzE4ew&list=PLgmbWev43VKeUBNMWEVwnNddAbzUIjPXY&index=4 MARTHA BECK A Conscious Class in Our Lifetime
My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style. — Maya Angelou My friend Clay wrote me the other day to tell me about a book he’s reading. It’s called Seven Ages of Paris, and in it, the French w...
A couple of weeks ago I boarded a plane from London to Philadelphia and immediately sensed something weird was going on. Our flight had been delayed for hours by mechanical problems, and I expected everyone, including the crew, to be tired and grumpy. Instead, the flight attendants appeared ...
To be awake is to be alive. — Henry David Thoreau There are some days when thinking gives way to feeling. This is one of those days for me. Today, I am getting out of my head and into my heart. Why? Because my heart feels full. I feel grateful. I feel hopeful. I feel blessed. Th...
The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. — Maya Angelou It was early evening when it happened. I was walking back to my car after a boxing session (yup, I box!), when I turned the corner and encountered a homeless man lying...
When the world is complicated, the simple gift of friendship is in all our hands.” — Maria I’m so happy May is upon us because it’s a month that feels like spring. It feels light. It feels joyful. It feels full of possibility. Everywhere you look, you can see nature unfolding...
A friend of mine recently experienced something I call a “life wallop.” You’ve probably had a few wallops in your own life: a relative you funded through rehab calls, high as a kite, asking you for bail money; an elderly parent, lost in dementia, snaps something brutally cruel; you s...
