Archive

Whenever I go hiking with my parents on Black Cap Mountain in New Hampshire, they point out the colored blazes on the trail, which remind us where we are and whether we are on the right path.  I recently learned that the literal term “trail blazing” refers to the process of marking a path with […]

So many mothers today want to be perfect, to do everything right, as though parenthood is a series of difficult gymnastic skills, that if you only try hard enough, you can land perfectly for those Olympic judges watching. I don’t know how this evolved. It certainly wasn’t present in the sixties and seventies when many women drank, not […]

Every year our local public school has a day long carnival that raises a lot of money for the PTO.  While I have volunteered in other ways in the past, this is an event that I try to avoid, between the crowds and the screaming kids with cotton candy in their hair. A friend once […]

I recently re-read a fascinating book by Ben Sherwood called The Survivor’s Club, which recounts tale after tale of survival stories, explaining what works and what doesn’t when it comes to surviving.  In plane crashes, for instance, apparently many crashes are survivable as long as you remember that you have 90 seconds in general to get off a […]

  I read recently that part of US military training involves teaching what we absolutely need for survival.  The “rule of three” describes a hierarchy of needs, so in a life or death survival situation you can remember what is most important. You can survive only 3 seconds without hope, 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 […]

When I think about the recent shooting at the gay club in Orlando, all I can think of is how often we get it wrong in understanding violence in our country.  Even though it’s true that gay people were targeted this time, three years ago it was school children in Newtown, and 20 years ago […]

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”  I love that quote, because it reminds me that while it’s easy to complain about the problems in the world, the first step is to see what we can change in ourselves that will have positive ripples on others.  So often we […]

Albert Einstein was quoted as saying, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”  I love this quote, because it reminds us, from one of the great geniuses of our time, that it’s up to us  how we perceive […]

Recently I heard a leading expert speak on the topics of teenage girls.  She spoke about the culture of meanness and how girls use micro-aggression so that they can be hostile while appearing to be nice.  She talked about how girls don’t stand up for themselves and don’t take themselves seriously, how they apologize and defer […]

Earlier this week, I got to hear a thoughtful speaker, Dr. Richard Weissbourd–Harvard Education School professor and author– talk about how to raise caring, ethical and happy children.  His point was that we are so focused as parents today on our kids’ happiness, that it’s often at the expense of other people.  In addition, we are […]