Every day this school year, I have written short notes to include in the girls’ lunch boxes, zipped up next to crackers and ready for them to find during their lunch breaks. In each day’s note, I try to notice and appreciate something I value in each of them. Things like:You...
I can think of very few times when I’ve been delighted to call a number and hear a recorded voice saying, “Thank you for calling. Press 1 if you…” …but there’s a first for everything. I recently heard about a free hotline that offers sage advice...
A woman in New South Wales, Australia, had a number appear on her phone that she didn’t recognize. She did what we all do – hit ignore. Day after day, she dodged phone calls from a number she was convinced belonged to a scammer. Ring. Ignore....
It was just a few years ago that scientists discovered the answer to the mystery of why sunflower plants move their blooms to face the sun over the course of a day. Known as heliotropism or “sun turn” in Greek, sunflowers, like humans, have behavioral changes that...
The photograph paused my scrolling through the news. A magnificent lion was on its back, its golden mane catching the light of the setting sun. The lion’s feet were up in the air. Its tongue was sticking out and its body was slack. Standing to...
A new kind of escape room just opened near our house. There are six games, each with multiple levels. After entering a room, you have only two minutes to solve the physical or mental challenge and try to get to the next level. The admission...
Recently, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Dr. Nora Volkow, wrote an essay critiquing abstinence-only and relapse thinking in addiction treatment. The unhelpful assumption that abstinence is the only successful outcome of treatment is something the addiction treatment field has struggled with...
When Emma was five, she liked to push her little fists gently into her closed eyelids until she could see silver-golden sparkles illuminating the darkness. When she opened her eyes, she would stare in wide-eyed wonder as the sparkles lingered in the light, dotting the...
The L-shaped bookshelf next to my desk has rows and rows of books – academic ones, classics from college literature classes and a few tattered ones I have re-read hundreds of times. There is another section that’s reserved for trinkets and memories I’ve accumulated over the...
Over the winter break, the girls stayed busy playing various board games we’ve collected in the closet over the years. One day, they pulled out the classic game Operation. For those who haven’t played, the objective is to use small tweezers to remove plastic ailments from...