Posts: Life
Saving Us from Madness
Harmonizing our need for change and routine
Jan 30, 2024
Wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, take a lunch break, finish work, eat dinner, work out, shower, go to sleep. Sprinkle in chores, cleaning, and running errands every other day. We all have our own versions of daily routines. And let’s be honest, they don’t change all that much. There are those rare special-occasion days, or those tragic-news days, or the travel days, but everything in-between is fairly ordinary.
Way, Way Grander Than Myself
Thoughts on life’s impermanence and leaving an impact
Feb 18, 2023
It was my first shiva gathering. Thursday night, 9 pm my time, on Zoom. I had no idea what to expect. A traditional ritual of Judaism, it is a mourning period for close relatives and friends where they come by and bring food, comfort the mourner, discuss the loss, and share memories.
A Cocoon for Crafting Wings
The balancing act of nurturing our child and adult selves
Feb 10, 2023
My husband and I went light shopping over the weekend. We were wanting to replace all of our hallway ceiling lights as well as the chandelier that came with the house we purchased a little over a year ago. We walked around the store, taking in the large selection, craning our necks and pointing to ones we liked and ones that were a bit too contemporary for our taste.
The Unseen Battles We Fight
And other audacious measures of being human
Mar 26, 2019
What battle are you currently fighting that no one sees? I often have a version of this thought when walking around and someone passes me by. I’m curious about the struggles that person is going through. The troubles that keep them up at night. So much of our battles are hidden from others and go unseen, sometimes even from those closest to us.
Looking for Meaning Everywhere
Thoughts on our search for meaning
Jan 29, 2019
My dad turned 73 this week. As a birthday gift, I sent him Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. He’s a reader so I figured he’d enjoy this. It’s a haunting read, but hopeful. The book is Frankl’s memoir of his experience in the Nazi concentration camps, where his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished.
What It Means to Live Our “Best Life”
Jan 09, 2019
The thing they don’t tell you about “living your best life” is that it takes time to get there. And that it has to be YOUR best life, not a cookie-cutter version of someone else’s. We live in a time of “comparison fatigue,” the mental and emotional exhaustion that comes from constantly comparing ourselves — our stuff, our home, our bodies, our achievements, our travels — with those of others.
This Too Is Life
Oct 29, 2017
We spent most of the crisp fall day in a downtown of a neighboring city, my husband and I, walking around the shops and restaurants, finding unique treasures in boutiques. The leaves on the ground around us just slightly losing their golden maroon color. The people walking by, pleasantly in a Sunday mood. We took selfies in front of an old brick wall.
Musings on the New Year
Jan 10, 2017
Of course I wanted this post to be extra special, meticulously polished, and deeply interesting. After all, it’s the first post of 2017. But I’m working on letting go of perfection. Such pressure a new year brings — a redo, a fresh start, a chance to begin again, or begin at all. Could it be that we humans invented the concept of time — days, months, years — because we needed a motivation to start over?
Finding the Good in the Ugly of Life
Dec 05, 2016
"It would be an ugly life. But it would be punctuated with great bursts of exaltation. Which, as Gabe would say, is mostly like life, for anyone.” These were lines in a novel I just finished called The Breakdown Lane by Jacquelyn Mitchard. The book, to be honest, wasn’t my favorite but I felt compelled to finish it, devoted bookworm as I am.
How Are You?
Nov 14, 2016
No really, how are you? How are you right now, in this precious moment? Not on the surface, not in the ‘asking-the-cashier-at-checkout’ sort of way. But deep down, underneath the layers we pile on to keep ourselves safe and protected from the grievances of the world. How is the deepest part of you feeling?
When Your Comfort Zone Becomes Your Dead Zone
Nov 01, 2016
I want so badly to tell you a more interesting story, but for now, all I have is the one of a girl who is terrified to step outside her comfort zone and yet at the same time, is desperately longing to. See, I know a thing or two about comfort zones. Actually I know too much. More than I’d like to admit.
The Season of In-between
Oct 17, 2016
It is gloomy outside my window on this rainy afternoon. I open the blinds a little bit more to let the gray light in. Everything in the parking lot outside is soaked and dewy. What I’ve always loved about the rain is its cleansing effect — how it removes the accumulating dust and grime of the summer months. And then there’s the calm.