One of the winning essays in NOWW’s Postcard Story Challenge. Before the red ribbon, I would press the snooze button once, maybe twice, then shower, dress, and eat breakfast: toast & peanut butter, orange juice.
What is luck? We all have highs and lows, emotional, personal, and professional mountain peaks and valleys, but we too easily recall the downside
My son, when he was on the edge of teenage-dom (around “ten-teen” as his aunt accurately labelled this age that teetered between the innocence of childhood and the grittiness of adolescence), wrote this line for a classroom assignment, “I am sad that my grandfather died.”
I also wanted to contribute in a more personal way that just cutting three $100 cheques. After all, there’s something to be said for the emotional aspect of “the spirit of giving.”
As a kid, I was overly fascinated with keys—not the jangly kinds that unlock doors and secret diaries and stash boxes—the kind you find on antique cash registers, typewriters, and adding machines. For whatever tactile pleasure these mechanical devices provided I may never
Intuition is generally understood to be: knowledge instantly obtained through the senses, based on neither logic nor reason, and without thinking about it such as impressions or perceptions. Intuitive ability has even been used interchangeably with psychic ability.
I imagined the headline in my travel diary. The entry would read: On Wednesday, October 11, 2006, a plane flew into an apartment building in Manhattan, New York.
How about “Bootcamp or Band Camp? How to Raise a Responsible Teen,”
The Kid wanted a “really nice scar” once the scabs healed; he wanted something to show for his injury, something similar to the five-inch scar I have on my right thigh, just above the knee.
You cannot remember the moment of impact, only the seconds before the crash. But, you can recall with great detail the minutes afterward. In an instant, adjectives to describe the pain, like “immense” and “excruciating” have measure beyond a dictionary’s definition.
Everyone, it seems, has had a brush with celebrity. There are near misses and there are complete misses.
“Hi, I’m Art Buchwald, and I just died.” I read that line in a magazine article about writer Art Buchwald. He delivered those words in an online video obituary published by the New York Times. I think it’s both hilarious and inspiring.
A friend recently asked me what is the funniest, most surprising or unexpected thing about being midlife. “Midlife????!!!” I responded. “Who says I’m midlife?”
Giving in the spirit of Christmas, honouring personal heroes, paying if forward—it doesn’t matter what you call it, the important thing is action.
If Oprah posed the question, Anderson Cooper’s Dispatches from the Edge urged me to action.