“I will be the leader!” my 7-year daughter, Ella, announced as she stood up and put her hands firmly on her hips. We were headed to our backyard to collect a variety of leaves for her school science project. I began walking toward the door with...
I accompanied my husband to a conference in Las Vegas this past weekend. After my husband’s morning meeting was over, we found ourselves with a full Saturday ahead of us. We talked about what we wanted to do, and settled on finding out about the...
I had flown in to Dallas late the night before, checked into my hotel room and, after a short night’s sleep, found myself back at the hotel front desk early the next morning to check out and head to a meeting. There were lots of...
Spring has begun in Scottsdale and I was feeling extra happy in the warm sun, wearing a bright yellow dress that reflected my happy mood. Walking across a parking lot, a woman touched my shoulder and said, “Cute dress!” “Thank you!” I smiled and replied. “It’s...
One of the required courses during my first year in graduate school was an orientation to clinical work. The course met late on Friday afternoons. For the six of us in year one of the clinical psychology program, it was the only thing holding us...
This week, two little girls in Germany discovered a rat stuck half in and half out of a sewer grate. The rotund little creature couldn’t go in and couldn’t go out thanks to “a lot of winter flab,” according to news outlets. The local animal...
If you happened to be swimming in the ocean next to a boxer crab, you might look at their little claws waving around and imagine that they were holding the most adorably small pair of pom-poms and laugh to yourself, thinking they were acting as...
When my husband and I were dating, we decided to have a book club. It was a very exclusive book club — just the two of us. After reading two books, we decided our third book would be an audio book we could listen to...
For a very long time, I resisted the electronic calendar. I would be in meetings, and as others were adding meeting times and notes on their various electronics, I would reach into my bag and take out my three-ring planner, using my favorite blue pen...
Sometimes, for fun, I imagine that there is a narrator who responds to my internal and spoken dialogue. The narrator would speak in a low, captivating voice — a voice like Morgan Freeman’s — and would capture my true feelings and contradict falsehoods, as needed. For...