A Year Spent Learning About Life

As year end approaches, I’ve always been a big fan of looking ahead and making plans.

As business guru Tom Peters wrote in his book Thriving on Chaos, it’s important to ask two questions.

One, have I made a difference in the last two years and two, am I having fun yet? If the answer is no, you still have work to do.

This year I’m not sure I’m quite ready to look forward. Given what I’ve learned and how blessed I’ve been this past year, it seems more appropriate for me this time round to invest… More Posted on 12-26-07

Riding the Addictions Roller-Coaster

It used to be our family’s dirty little secret.

But, believing others could perhaps benefit from our learning, my family suggested we share.

As a result, almost exactly one year ago, my column included a letter I had written to a younger brother caught up in the terrible pain of addiction.

There wasn’t a family member who ever believed it possible that one of us would end up on the street. We’ve learned that addiction does not discriminate and that it is so very complicated.

While my brother’s addiction spiraled as the result of painkillers prescribed… More Posted on 12-19-07

Family Values

I won’t be home for Christmas.

Just putting that in writing makes me weepy.

The reality is that it will be a very quiet Christmas. My husband and I will celebrate, for the first time ever, without our children and our respective extended families. Instead we’ll spend Christmas Eve with good friends and Christmas Day on our own. 

Ultimately one of the silver linings within a potentially blue Christmas is that it’s made me think a lot about my own values and making sure I’m living them.

Family has always been my most important priority. As part… More Posted on 12-13-07

Child Poverty Stats a Call to National Action

It was, as Dr. Phil would put it, a defining moment.  It occurred for Ian Hill, a good friend of mine, as he drove by and saw kids splashing about in a puddle in the parking lot of a rundown motel. 

Despite cool weather, the kids were shoeless and dressed in ill-fitting, grungy clothes that had seen better days. For some unknown reason, he felt compelled to stop and talk. 

He learned that although the kids lived with their mother in one of the dismal motel rooms, they were alone because she was at work. They were without… More Posted on 12-07-07