I sat facing my instructor, prepared to learn a new technique—an elbow to the windpipe, a devastating side-kick to the knee-cap, or palm-heel smashing upward into the nasal cavity.
But this class was different. It was quiet. There were no forceful yells or fast moving hands. There was no need for a mouth […]

I am a youngin’. A spring chicken, if you will.
The world is my oyster and I am ripe for the pickin’. I have never been more ready to go than I am right at this very moment and let’s go, time’s a-wastin’, let’s move people.
It’s just that there’s this picture on my wall.
And […]

I watched the movie “Juno” last night for the first time.
I pin-droppingly focused on the final moments when an eager adoptive mother meets her baby for the very first time, big, wet teardrops falling off my cheekbones faster than I could wipe them.
These are the moments in which we are reminded there is nothing—absolutely nothing—stronger […]

Years ago I worked pretty hard to build the smoke and mirrors that would make me look as if I had things together—that I was calm and collected and easy and fine.
I put on the funny and added the witty and offered to carpool and volunteer and listen and give good advice and is there […]