If you’re not feeling delightful this December — often called “the most wonderful time of the year” – you’re not alone. It’s been a hard year for millions of people in many ways. You’re not required to fall in line with the holly jolly hustle of the season. But maybe these four simple words I read recently in a Katherine Center novel will give you the same surprising lift they gave me: “Sometimes things get better.” Simple, right? But if your brain, like mine, is hardwired to assume a worst-case scenario, that single sentence can feel like a revelation. Doom and gloom don’t have to be the default position. When you allow for the possibility that things can get better, […]

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I’m good at some things — like making a paper projectile out of a straw’s wrapper, swatting a fly with one targeted strike, and quoting lines from reruns of sitcoms. Thanks to excellent teachers, I also have a few academic skills, like knowing when to use “who” or “whom” in any given sentence and where apostrophes should and shouldn’t be. But I know my limitations. And if you see me at a grocery or retail store, you should walk the other way. Because I can promise you that once it’s time to choose a check-out lane, I’ll pick the wrong one — every single time. I don’t do it on purpose. I try to find the best option by slowly […]

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I really do love words. For me, they’ve always been like magic. As a shy kid, I felt so fenced in by fear of nearly everything, but putting words on paper set me free. No pressure, no time limits, no judgment. Most of us spoke our first words within a year of being born. And every single year, we learn more of them. This year alone, 200 words and phrases were added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. As cool as the new words are, the most powerful phrase is one you’ve heard all your life: “Thank you.” This two-syllable saying does so much vital work in the world yet doesn’t get nearly enough credit for it, probably because it’s upstaged by […]

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For years, I said the thing all busy parents say when we’re wading through the drama of raising humans – the feeding and cleaning, the last-minute science projects, and the after-school activities that swallow up evenings and whole weekends. On days when I felt outnumbered by kids, errands and messes, I’d mentally reassure myself with this one hopeful phrase: “When the kids are in college, I’ll have time to take care of myself.” And now here we are. All three kids in college. No one needs me to drive them somewhere, sign permission slips, or edit their college application essay. It’s time to do the thing I always said I’d do, right? I started small, which was hard for me […]

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If I didn’t have to share mental space with an inner 12-year-old, I would’ve already put on a pair of progressive glasses or bifocals and been done with it. That’s what most people my age do. Instead, I’m stubbornly rooted in defiance. When I was a 12-year-old girl trying not to look or feel as awkward as I was, I spent weeks learning how to put in, take out, and clean contact lenses. I worked to free my face from glasses and thought it would last forever. But then I turned 50. That’s when my inner child realized she now lives inside a nearsighted body that has somehow become farsighted, too. How is that even possible? The girl says this […]

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I’m not sure how it happened, but Tom and I raised three kids who love scary movies. It wasn’t genetic. These precious babies, who once watched cartoons while sipping juice boxes, grew into young adults who love to pile into a car together and go to a movie that would melt my face off and cause permanent insomnia. Why do they do this? What’s so fun about being scared? I just spent two decades trying to protect these people from terror, only to have them grow up and pay eleven bucks to be immersed in it while devouring Milk Duds. How does this happen? After some research, I think I’m beginning to understand. It turns out that fear is more […]

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I have a problem. And if the first step is admitting it, here goes: I’m a snooze abuser. If there’s a snooze to use, I’ll do it. Again and again. I’ve been abusing and snoozing for several decades. When I was a teenager, I had a waterbed (because it was the 80s) with a built-in shelf on the headboard. One year for my birthday, my parents gave me a Sony Dream Machine digital clock radio because they were sick of dragging my lazy butt out of bed. I loved the clock radio and placed it on the shelf above my pillow, dutifully setting the alarm every school night. And every school morning when that alarm went off, my arm shot […]

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When I get up in the morning, the first thing I do – before caffeine and hygiene – is trick the dog and cat. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But the attempt has become my morning ritual – an act of love and deception. Each night, I arrange the dog and cat’s food bowls and other tools of trickery on the kitchen counter so everything is ready for the morning. If your brain (like mine) wakes up later than your body, it’s helpful to dummy-proof the process so you can fall back on routine and muscle memory. Tom and I have reached that magical age where even our pets have their own pill organizers. I labeled them with the […]

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One of the many reasons we love food, other than survival and taste, is the way it intertwines and defines the progression of our lives. So, can you capture your life in five foods? Let’s find out. Crackers and Cool Whip in the 70s: At age 4, I didn’t know daycare, but I did know Mrs. Fischer, who watched me and her two grandkids during the day while our moms worked at the local bank. She fed us sauerkraut and kielbasa for lunch with apricot kolache for dessert, and she and her husband, Mr. Henry, taught us how to play dominos as soon as we could count. Their granddaughter, Stacey, was my very first friend. When Mrs. Fischer needed us […]

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Regardless of age or level of education, sometimes we think we know things only to find out we were wrong or knew only a fraction of the facts. That’s what happened last week when I discovered details about the human nose that blew my mind (and my nose). Since we’re at the beginning of cold and flu season, I’ll share a story that your nose knows, which perhaps you don’t. I owe this revelation to a writer named Sarah Zhang, who wrote an article for The Atlantic about a year ago titled “Everything I Thought I Knew About Nasal Congestion Is Wrong.” I was skeptical when I saw the headline because I didn’t think there was much to know about […]

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