Planning Your Exit from the Corporate World
It’s been almost ten years since I volunteered to be laid off from my corporate job. At the time, I was shocked when the words came out of my mouth, followed by relief, panic, giddiness, and confusion. (All at once or in rapid succession, depending on the time of day.) According to my financial planner, I […]
A Matter of Choice
My grandson turns one today, and it has been a blessed (if exhausting) year for all of us. I know we’ve welcomed him into the world with exquisite attention and soul-deep love. I’ve been so fortunate to be able to care for him two days a week, witnessing the rapid changes over the past year. […]
Pura Vida
I’m standing on a small metal platform that wraps around a large tree in the canopy of a Costa Rican rainforest. The day is clear and bright. The Arenal volcano is looming in the distance. I tell myself I’m sweating because the humidity is sweltering up here. Okay, I might be sweating just a bit […]
How to Welcome a Grandson
After forty weeks of anticipation, it was time to greet my first grandchild. The focus had been on the health and care of my daughter-in-law as she grew this tiny human. Months spent ensuring they had everything they needed to support the newest member of our family. A staggering accumulation that had me wondering, how […]
Memories of Mushy Meals
My childhood memories of meals are mushy. Like most of the food my mother served us each night. No one would accuse her of being a good cook. No one would accuse her of wanting to be a good cook. She did her best, but food wasn’t her thing. Like most stay-at-home mothers in the […]
Reasons for Seasons
I’m sitting here watching the last baseball game of the Giants’ season. My eyes are filled with tears as I watch Brandon Crawford, their all-star shortstop of thirteen years, say farewell to the fans. It’s still unknown what he will do in the offseason, but this is his last game as a Giant. His children […]
Curating a New Perspective
A recent art exhibit helped me curate a new persepctive on the world and inspried me to let go of my perfectionist inner critic.
Life-Quakes & the Little Red Chicken
It’s been seven years since I started this blog. At the time, I had no idea where it would lead. I just knew I’d started a transition in my life and felt compelled to share it with my family and friends. It’s been a journey to discover my voice, getting comfortable with using the pronoun […]
Wows, Vows & Kapows
Origins of a Word Nerd I had a high school English teacher that was young, cute and desperate to do well in what I’m pretty sure was her first class as a fully-fledged teacher. She really wanted to engage us – a bunch of hormone-filled fifteen-year-olds who would rather sit on the grass and play […]
Mama’s Lost Her Zen
It’s Mother’s Day weekend and I have to be honest; Mama’s lost her Zen. Compounding Events Events during the Trump years brought me to edges of despair and depths of depression that were near crippling. But I had my coaching program, my writing cohort and my new practice of chanting with my mala beads. I […]
Love Flows Both Ways
This week marks my two-year anniversary of adopting Oliver, my Covid kitty. He spent the first days of our new life together cowering behind the shower curtain while I sat in the bathtub, reading my book, talking to him and feeding him special treats. It was a victory when he finally emerged. We’ve been inseparable […]
Following Giuseppe
My cousin Lisa and I were at the tail end of a two-week trip to Italy. It was our first trip to Europe and we’d learned a lot – both about Italy as well as ourselves. We learned the Romans did everything on a gigantic scale and Italians valued family, food, and wine not necessarily […]
Highlight Reels
Last month, I talked about following your energy bread crumbs as a way to become aware of people, places, and activities that replenish your energy, give you joy and bring out your best. This month, I’d like to connect the dots between those energy bread crumbs and how they can lead to creating your personal […]
Energy Breadcrumbs
The holidays are over. Covid continues to loom. Life is still wonky. And I’m in hibernation mode. I rebel against societal pressure to create resolutions based on the turning of a page on a calendar, but I do want to reflect on how I want to spend my time this year. I call this process […]
Magic Water
“Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said. ‘One can’t believe impossible things.’ ‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’ —Lewis Carroll The holidays are full of […]
My Year Without an Oven
My oven broke right before Thanksgiving last year. It was so old the repairman couldn’t fix it, which didn’t really bother me. I wasn’t hosting a big dinner. Our family couldn’t gather due to the pandemic. There wasn’t a vaccine yet. I was hunkered down and hoping to survive the winter. So, living without an […]
Be Afraid. Do It Anyway.
October is a month dedicated to scary things – horror movies, haunted houses, Halloween costumes – all with the intent to scare the bejeezus out of me. It’s not something I look forward to, yet the concept of fear, and how to deal with it, has been rattling around in my brain. Fear keeps us […]
First Friends
It’s been five years since I lost my friend Patti to a rare form of cancer. She was only sixty at the time and her sheer will and determination to fight for her life provided a model for me when I was diagnosed eighteen months later with breast cancer. Over the years, I’ve reflected on […]
Who Holds the Pen?
I recently had the opportunity to work with an experienced editor to polish a piece for publication in her digital magazine, Spirited Voices. When the time arrived for our session, I heard my usual inner critics shouting at me to be fearful of negative feedback, insisting that I wasn’t good enough and to beware that […]
In Search of the Perfect Gelato
For the past year, I’ve gotten up each morning and looked at my suitcase. She sits expectantly on my luggage rack reminding me 2020 was to be my Year of Travel and Adventure. We’ve mourned that loss together. Her mere presence brings back memories of people, experiences, laughter, discovery and pure delight. In those moments, […]
All in One
I was raised Catholic, dutifully going through first communion and whatever the thing is at twelve or thirteen . . . I think it’s confirmation. I remember having to choose a saint’s name to add to mine, so I chose the longest one, Catherine, in order to have the longest overall name in the class. […]
The 4 T’s of Transitions
Five years ago, I started this blog as a simple way to let my family and friends know where I was in the world. Its purpose morphed over time, gradually allowing me to find and own my voice. Now, I have a website that showcases my new “portfolio career” – a combination of consulting, coaching, […]
What’s in Your Mary Poppins Bag?
One of the most common questions I get since leaving the corporate world is “How did you decide what to do next?” My urge is to say “I have no idea.” But the truth is I had a semi-organized plan called Operation Snagglepuss that included doing inventory of my Mary Poppins bag. Let me explain […]
Journeys of Choice
It’s been five years since I left the corporate world and entered my self-prescribed 3rd Act. At the time, I thought I’d planned my journey quite well, yet looking back, it has been five years of unexpected twists and turns, accomplishments and loss, growth and setbacks. My battle with breast cancer and the death of […]
Wanted: Role Models
I was recently asked by a group of women who my role models were growing up. Given our current political environment, it seemed to carry more weight than usual as we seem to be losing our moral compass. And it should have been an easy question to answer. Yes? Actually, no. You know how there’s […]
The Sound of Musical Silliness
As part of my 3rd Act journey, I’ve created an “ideal schedule” for each day of the week. It’s color-coded a light green so my actual appointments and activities can sit on top. Not every minute is accounted for, but the blocks of time serve as a reminder for me to consciously choose how I […]
A Tattoo of My Own Choosing
In early 2018, I went through weeks of radiation to treat breast cancer. Little did I know it would require the placement of three very tiny tattoos for the technicians to “line me up” correctly. They are permanent marks and private reminders of a time when cancer lurked in my body, hidden and deadly. They […]
43 Minutes and 28 Seconds
That was how long our conversation lasted during what I now know was to be our last Father’s Day together. It was late afternoon and I was in my new office space downstairs, trying to stay cool during a rare heat wave. I was expecting the standard call; lamenting over the latest political gaffe, ruing […]
The Return of the Scavenger Hunt
One of my favorite memories as a kid was the scavenger hunt. I think it was invented by parents who just wanted their kids out of the house for a few hours during a birthday party and, boy howdy, did it work! Armed with a random list of oddities, we formed teams and ran around […]
New Year, New Perspective
I believe changing perspective, every once in a while, is like a good slap upside the head – quite necessary and oddly reassuring. So, on Day One of 2019, I set out to find my New Year perspective. A year ago, I was nursing wounds from breast cancer surgery. A year ago, I was happy […]