“One of the greatest necessities in America is to discover
creative solitude.”
Carl Sandburg
________
Reflections
“One of the greatest necessities in America is to discover creative solitude.”
Carl Sandburg
________
Reflections
House vs. Home
“There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort” Jane Austen We have a vacation home in the mountains of Colorado and my daughter has been living there during the pandemic. Well, the fires got a little too close, so she packed up and moved to our home in...
Is Cliche the Cynic’s Word for Universal?
If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal John Lennon Years ago, when I was teaching English, I was asked to judge the National Scholastic Writing Contest with a...
“Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”
I was awake this morning from 3:00 am on (not an unusual occurrence since the pandemic.) It’s at this time that personal, professional and global anxieties arrive unbidden and settle in for a few cozy hours of certain insomnia. After an hour of tossing, turning and...
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Yesterday, I visited my mother’s grave. It was the first time in 20 years. She died 45 years ago. I may sound like an unfeeling daughter, but my mother hated all the rituals surrounding death. There was no funeral (she was buried by cemetery staff); we had a memorial...
Anticipation – Are These the Good Old Days?
This old song by Carly Simon has been running through my head for a few days, especially the refrain, and the last lines, “These are the good old days.” We can never know about the days to come But we think about them anyway And I wonder if I'm really with you now Or...
Curiosity and Love of Learning are Helping Me Cope
Like everyone else during this crazy, scary time, I have discovered a few things about myself. I still wake up without an alarm at 7:00 and feel better if I start my day right then. I miss hugs from my daughters most of all (I still get to hug my husband). And I have...
If Only We Paid Closer Attention…
"History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes." Credited to Mark Twain As I’ve been holed up in my house like everyone else, I’ve developed an insatiable appetite for documentaries. Especially documentaries about horrible diseases. Morbid I know. I watched a...
A deep distress hath humanized my soul.
Here is the entire stanza from a William Wordsmith’s poem published in 1807. So once it would have been—'tis so no more; I have submitted to a new control: A power is gone, which nothing can restore; A deep distress hath humanized my soul. Very prescient words written...
We Need Each Other
“Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation-- our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance. “ Daniel Kahneman The past few weeks have really shaken our sense that our world rests on a secure foundation. And that...
Travelling with Pomegranates
This is a blog that I wrote a few years ago, and it really resonated with women, especially mothers. So I thought I’d reprint it again during Women’s History Month. I really enjoyed Sue Monk Kidd’s novel, The Secret Life of Bees, and when I had a few moments in the...
My own “Tennessee Mountain Home”
I’ve never paid much attention to Dolly Parton. I’ve admired her for being her own person and doing exactly what she wanted, but I haven’t listened to her music or visited Dollywood in Tennessee. A friend recently recommended the podcast “Dolly Parton’s America.” I...
Have you spent enough time diagnosing the problem?
Einstein realized that it is as important to see the problem clearly as to see the solution. Many clients will come to me convinced that they know what their problem is and just want me to help them with the solution. For example, many leaders struggle with...
