“The first day of the rest of your life”

Well, I don't know about you, but I could have done without the excitement of the last month. It wasn't the cheerful, Christmas-season kind of excitement either. I spent most of December in the throes of an existential crisis, trapped in a fugue of worry and second guessing and sleepless nights and being thrown so…

Finding your guts

A friend of mine just did something incredible and exciting and gutsy and more inspiring than anything I've seen in a long time - she opened her first art show. This may not sound especially remarkable, but in this particular instance it is. Like me, she was a long-time county employee. But for her that…

Making time

So we're in the lull between holidays, the few days when you've finished cleaning up from Thanksgiving but haven't yet gotten sucked into the chaos of Christmas. (Well, if you're anything like me, you haven't.) This is the eye of the storm, the brief reprieve before you end up buried under an avalanche of wrapping paper and tinsel and…

My zen

Some people meditate as a means of finding their zen. Some people hit the gym, practice yoga, or go for a long hike through the woods. Some cook, some paint or sketch, some write. But the way I find my balance has always been through reading. It's my first love, the thing that best defines me and makes…