The Power of Yes

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A few months BC (Before COVID), I read Year of Yes, by Shauna Rhimes. The premise is deceptively simple: Despite incredible professional success, the Queen of Shaunda Land felt lonely and unfulfilled. On a dare from her sister, Shaunda spent a year saying “Yes” to everything – speaking engagements, parties, working out, salads, events – and she found her new life surprisingly rewarding and exciting in ways she hadn’t imagined it could be.

I was inspired and energized as she told her story, but as I considered my own life, I felt like I was very, very far away from So Much Yes.

I said no. A lot.

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Boys’ Rules for Life

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I started writing this essay with the intention of providing advice for my sons as they grew into men. Some tips were specific (Change your socks every day); some general (Learn to be OK with failure), and some were based on my own life experience (Don't get married until you're 30). But as I observed my sons with a journalistic eye, I realized how much they can teach us all.

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Resolve Beyond January

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Welcome to the New Year! Time to get off the couch and back to the real world where you are expected to wear pants and function in society once again.  This year I’m setting goals through seasonal themes to keep me motivated beyond the New Year’s burst of enthusiasm. This structure offers a chance to check in throughout the year, rather than going out in a blaze of glory when Oreo launches a new flavor in January. (Side note: Chocolate marshmallow? That hardly seems fair.) 

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I, Phone: My Dysfunctional Digital Life

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I checked in everywhere. I posted witty updates and tag friends and places. I quoted insightful articles. I was in the maelstrom of social media, and I reveled in the connectivity, the community of it all. I loved it. 

Until I didn’t. 

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Summer Siesta

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When my boys get home from camp or our adventures in the city they are hot and tired and a little sick of each other, and of me. All they want are their screens. Left to their own devices, so to speak, they don’t talk to me, to each other, to their dad when he arrives home and says hello. They are hypnotized. I felt the irony of limiting their tablet time while I hid in the kitchen or sneaked into the bathroom to scroll through Instagram or check Facebook for the umpteenth time that day. Clearly we all have a problem. And we are not alone.

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Miracles and Marshmallows

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I think of myself as a generally positive person. Not Mary Poppins positive but realistically optimistic at least. As a Mom there are many occasions (often mornings) when Fake it Until You Make It is the order of the day.

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How the Flu Saved Christmas

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‘Twas two weeks before Christmas and inside my brain
Were To Do’s and Lists, long and insane.
So much to get done, all tasks fall to me
From purchasing presents to trimming the tree.

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