Our friends, pets and family links are like a beautiful rope bridge that supports us as we wobble across the chasm of life. When we are young, we often run along that bridge not looking over the edge, just heading for the opposite bank…

Gratitude. A simple word. One we think we understand, and in the general sense, we do. But what we often fail to understand is the power of gratitude in our lives. Not just the feel-good power, but the actual benefit to our very practical, everyday lives…

A common belief is that our happiness and wellbeing are in direct proportion to our circumstances. When things are going well, we’re happy. When problems or challenges enter in, we’re miserable. And we’ve all said things like, “When I lose weight, I’ll…”

There is salad dressing in my refrigerator that dates back to the Bush administration. And there’s a plastic container in the back that’s growing a chemistry experiment but I’m afraid to look, so I just leave it there. I know when the milk…

When I moved from Tokyo to New York, I was a young mom with three children under 3 years old. I was too busy settling down in a new home, in a new country, in a new continent to notice much about the weather. I didn’t know then how much it would…

We’ve all seen TV shows and movies featuring coaches with hearts of gold, but usually they have a gruff exterior. But in the popular TV series Ted Lasso we see a coach who’s gentle, compassionate and sweet through and through. His unshakeable…

Long ago, a friend told me her fiancé had given her a huge gift. He was multi-lingual and had many dictionaries. He told her he went through every one of them and removed the word “divorce.” Removed…

We spend years dreaming about our retirement. All of the things we will do, and all of the time we will have to do them, are often the center of these aspirations. Still, many people report that all of the free time they thought they would have…

‘Tis the season of ghosts, ghouls, goblins and freaks, but are you wearing your control freak mask year-round? There are those of us who struggle with varying degrees of that need and/or obsession to exercise control over ourselves and others…

Curled up in my cozy nest with only the glow of the screen illuminating the world before dawn, I write, I read, I understand. The words flow from my fingertips and my mind grasps what was previously unknown. Mornings are for writing…