“You don’t have to get a job that makes others feel comfortable about what they perceive as your success. You don’t have to explain what you plan to do with your life. You don’t have to justify your education by demonstrating its financial rewards. You don’t have to maintain an impeccable credit score. Anyone who expects you to do any of those things has no sense of history or economics or science or the arts. You have to pay your [...]
Life Lessons
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded. Ralph Waldo Emerson This [...]
This weekend I felt scattered and pensive. This tension arose from some unexpected personal news and the residual feelings of what happened in Boston over the week. Every time I turned on the television these images kept playing like a scratched record on a turntable: news that one brother died in a gunfire battle, another brother alive, captured, but unable to talk, lying in the same hospital building as those who were victimized by him, and the face of Sean, the MIT [...]
The events in Boston this week left a lingering dull ache in my heart. When I learned of the Chinese parents who lost their only child, I settled into a deep sadness. I keep asking, why? I know there are no answers to these senseless acts of violence. I sit in silence. No words provide a balm to help soothe the restlessness and anxiety I feel over this week’s events. When I am in this state, I often look to [...]
I see him. I know exactly what he looks like. That little boy waiting for his mom or dad or aunt or uncle to cross the marathon finish line. His eyes are wide as he scans the crowd to wait for his loved one. I imagine him wearing a Boston Red Sox baseball cap, his hands in his jean pocket, and looking up and down and leaning forward to catch a glimpse of all of the runners. I see her. [...]
It is no secret. I love routine. My morning run, coffee, and writing time are staples of my day. If for some reason I miss out on these daily rituals, I feel incomplete. This is my quiet time, something I crave more and more as I get older. As much as solitude provides comfort, I also realize that it is essential to move out of my own box and try new things. The idea of trying new things appeals to [...]
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” Thoreau, Walden I am not a photographer. I realize too late, after the moment passes, that it was an opportunity to snap a picture. Yesterday I yearned for some inspiration. I decided to take a walk and pay attention to the earth. It is easy to slip into the doldrums of a “busy” life [...]
“There are still many more days of failure ahead, whole seasons of failure, things will go terribly wrong, you will have huge disappointments, but you have to prepare for that, you have to expect it and be resolute and follow your own path.” Anton Chehkov This past week I learned an essay I submitted for publication failed to garner any positive attention. I received a brief, but gracious email stating my submission failed to meet their criteria. The one word [...]
I remember watching Siskel & Ebert in my childhood living room. After a long session of studying, I turned on the television on late Sunday nights and caught their movie reviews. After learning about Mr. Ebert’s passing, I felt a sadness for a person I never met. I suspect it is because yet another staple of my past is gone. We are all victims of time’s clenched fist. The continuum of goodbyes always unsettles me. It magnifies how painfully I [...]
“Wherever I am, the world comes after me. It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it. Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.” Mary Oliver I like quiet. When I feel lost, I retreat home. Sitting in my office, the familiar seeps into my veins. The sound of my fingers moving on the keys of my laptop, [...]
