In 2010, I was working as a Middle School Science teacher at a small school in Ecuador. Unlike my time at an American School, when teachers showed up early to prep and ready their classrooms, most Ecuadorian teachers arrived on the busses with the students. As a result, it became a common trend for all the teachers to be arriving with the students right at 8am, giving everyone just a few minutes to get situated before the first bell. The head of the school, an American, tried to change this habit by implementing a sign-in system. When we arrived at the school, we had to…

Sometimes I write things that don’t ever get published. I start with an idea in the OneNote App in my phone - the digital notebook where I start a new page anytime I have a moment of inspiration. Sometimes I just write down the initial idea and eventually delete it. Other times I add to it, edit it, and work it into the best blog post I can write. Sometimes, I do all that, and I still don’t post it. 

I wasn’t sure if I’d post this or not, because it’s personal. But the reason I write is so that other people won’t feel alone. I write for the person that reads my stuff and thinks yes, me too. I write so that I might give someone else the feeling that someone else gets it. So, for all those reasons, here is my story…

Virtual Jury Duty is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever experienced. This morning I promptly joined the Zoom call at 8:35. As per the instructions, I had my camera on and tested my audio and video prior to the call to make sure I was ready. A few minutes in, someone from the Jury Staff introduced themselves and let all of us know that they were going to take attendance. A man then proceeded to start calling out everyone's names. There were over 300 people on the call….

I frequently use the laughing-crying emoji. You know the one? It's apparently popular among millennials. I think the fact that I use it is supposed to be an indicator that I'm old. Not too old, of course. But old enough to remember a world before emojis existed. A world when you couldn't use an image to tell someone immediately how you felt, but instead had to wait until after gym when your best friend could pass them the note you wrote in 3rd period. The reason I use this emoji, however, has nothing to do with my generation or because I love it more than any other symbol. I use this emoji often because…

Sunday Morning, for the first time ever, I decided to plan out all my meals. Since I have been home with more time, the snacking and full pasta lunches has increased, so I figured planning out meals for the week would help keep Andrew and I healthy. So Sunday morning, I planned.  Sunday Evening, I got a call…

This week was my first full week back home and unemployed. I was commiserating with a friend of mine who was also let go, and we realized we had been hearing the same message from our friends and family: enjoy it. It's a hard thing to hear in this situation, to be told to try and enjoy a place when you feel like you don't belong there; to enjoy a state  of being when you know you're capable of more. But at the same time, it's also just good advice for everyone no matter where you are. 

On Wednesday we got home after being gone for over two weeks. The garden I wrote about previously, that Andrew has been working on, was blossoming with the exception of one really big tomato plant. Turns out that sometime in the last week, something in the system broke and the plant wasn't getting any water. It had still grown and had a few ripened tomatoes and many green, but it was obvious at first glance that it was dying.  All of the dead branches had wrapped themselves around the healthy ones so tightly that the entire bush seemed unsalvageable…

The last time I experienced big grief was after my brother died. It was a time in my life that taught me the stages of grief don't happen one after the other. They happen all at once. This knowledge has helped me this week as I walk through yet another season of grief in my life…

The Day the World Came to Town is about September 11, 2001 - more commonly known as 9/11. It tells the story not of what happened in NYC that day, but of all the planes that were headed to New York but couldn’t make it. They were rerouted to...

When I was in college I read a book that told me I shouldn't dabble in things. I don't remember the book or the specifics, but I do remember being impacted by the words to the point that I took all my yarn and needles, put them in a box, and shipped them to a friend in Boston. She was much more talented at knitting than I was. According to the author, if I didn't…

Have you ever seen a glacial erratic? The picture above is from a New Jersey hike I did a few weekends ago. They are scattered throughout the woods at the side of the trail and you can see from the picture, they look a bit out of place. Walking past these boulders, you can’t help but chuckle at how much they stand out. It is obvious that they didn't originate here; just a giant rock in the middle of the woods. So how did they get there? These rocks were…

I opened up the email, hoping it was wrong. Your QR Code has expired. My mind started working in overtime. Did I try out different websites? Or was this the one I used for my business cards? I quickly reached into the backseat and grabbed my purse, pulling out my wallet that held a few of the cards. I had just put them there that morning, beaming with pride of my choice of color and design. I pulled one out and grabbed my phone to scan it….

When I set out to drive the 348 miles from New Jersey to upstate New York, what I planned to do was only stop for gas. What I ended up doing was hike 3 mountains. That feels like quite a leap, but a few basic truths about behavior change can explain how I got there.

I want you to imagine for a minute, that you want to build a house. Even if you don't know the first thing about construction, I'm sure you can think of a few steps it would take. We need to decide what we want the house to look like, make blueprints, build it, and finally furnish it. If you could make a list of everything required I’m sure it would be quite long. What's interesting though, is what probably didn't pop into your head was something like sleep. Or food. Or maybe music or a podcast to pass the time. Or a friend to help you out for the job's that can't be done by just one person. Or heck, maybe even a friend to just keep you company so you don't quit. We don't typically think of things like that when we try to accomplish something, because we want to get it down to just the essentials. But therein lies the problem. There is more to essential than meets the eye.

I had a win this week. I finished the second draft of my book. It was a bit of a surreal moment, and I almost missed it because I know there's still a long road ahead of me before I have the book in my hands. There will be several months of working with the publisher and editors, and so it didn't even feel like I could celebrate yet because I wasn't finished. Then, my sister-in-law Sarah reminded me to celebrate every step along the way, and she's right. What's ironic is that…

Suddenly I heard the sound of rocks slipping under someone's feet. I stared at the steep cliff on both sides and my heart stopped. Every step from Scout's Lookout to the top of Angel's Landing was like this. Always just a few feet from a cliff, or in some cases on the side of the cliff grasping the chain and carefully finding foot holes, there were no moments you felt completely safe. It was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time. When we reached the top…

The morning this post will go out, I will hopefully be somewhere in Zion taking in the great outdoors. Hiking is something I love. The image above is from my last trip to one of the other Utah National Parks, Canyonlands, where I stood on top of rock formations, closed my eyes, and just listened to the sounds of silence. I thought about…

In February 2019, I had applied for a job that ended up being a 3-month long interview process.  I had taken a major step toward the person I wanted to be, but then was stuck waiting. During that time I learned that waiting should never be the primary thing in our lives. It is something passive, something that happens in the background while we are living. Waiting to see if you got the job… if the lab results are negative… if you got into college… if that cute guy is going to call you back… waiting for those 3 text message dots to turn into the response you're hoping for. One of the worst things you can do is…

In his book Effortless, Greg McKeown discusses the idea that sometimes we focus too much on how we’re going to get through the hard parts of something, when instead we should be asking the question, how can I make the hard parts easier? A lot of difficult tasks are not enjoyable until you finish and have that satisfied feeling of completion. Unfortunately...