by Cheryl Farrell | May 16, 2022 | Guest Writers, Social Issues
Our guest contributor, Cheryl Farrell, a corporate communicator responds to gun violence. A CNN video clip shows news anchors needing more than three minutes to recite the list of mass shootings in the U.S. … that occurred in the first five months of the year!...
by Kate Fuglei | May 12, 2022 | Guest Writers
IOAP The spirit and energy of Marion McClinton, my acting partner, was infectious. We were performing a short play that night for a theater benefit and we were nervous. Everyone would be there. We ran laps around the building, we went over and over...
by Cheryl Farrell | Apr 30, 2022 | Guest Writers, Social Issues
Guest contributor Cheryl Farrell writes about the power of sharing our stories to make human connections. The word “storytelling” evokes images of children’s fairy tales, movie scripts, and even liner notes in financial reports. Back in the day, a young person...
by Kate Fuglei | Apr 16, 2022 | Guest Writers
Tiaras and Mac’n’Cheese It is strange and wondrous what can nourish you. When I was a child and had asthma, I got to stay home from school and go to my Grandma Bernice’s house because my mother worked full-time. Grandma Bernice had a huge...
by Troy Putney | Mar 20, 2022 | Guest Writers
Each day our world feels smaller, and the pain and suffering on the other side of the planet seems as though it is right next door. For many of us, we have an overwhelming sense of powerlessness that is weighing on our hearts and our minds. This is not a productive...
by Kate Fuglei | Mar 12, 2022 | Guest Writers
The Laborer “Stop flapping your jaw and listen once in awhile. Maybe you’ll learn something.” This was a cardinal rule of my father’s and something he said so often it was burnished into the minds of his six children. Perhaps it came from his Norwegian background. ...
by Cheryl Farrell | Feb 18, 2022 | Featured, Guest Writers
Guest contributor Cheryl Farrell writes about her circle of friends as inspired by a favorite TV show – Cheers. There’s a Sam, Diane, Carla, and Norm in the bunch. Our hope is that our stories and posts are timeless, however the week this posted, world...
by Kate Fuglei | Feb 10, 2022 | Guest Writers
Meet The McGoogans The McGoogans lived across the street from me when I was growing up. They had six girls and two boys. MaryMarsha, the oldest, was a singer and belted out her R n B tunes, shaking her mop of red hair and stomping her feet a la Janis Joplin. She...
by Dean Burgess | Feb 8, 2022 | Guest Writers
From martyred Christian saints to a pagan fertility festival featuring sacred caves, a she-wolf and some goats’ hides, St. Valentine’s Day has quite the murky and mysterious history. It wasn’t until the middle of the 18th century that friends and lovers began to...
by Amy McLaughlin-Margolis | Jan 22, 2022 | Expert Advice, Featured, Guest Writers
Happy New Year! And what a few years it’s been for all of us, individually and collectively as we navigate this pandemic and the unknown future of it together. I am sending you all so much love from my little desk in L.A. The new year usually brings with it...
by Dove Rose | Jan 16, 2022 | Expert Advice, Guest Writers
One Good Deed A Day My husband and I decided to set an intention to do at least one good deed a day and I want to invite you to join us. We were on a walk and discussing how we can do good in this life. Sometimes it is the simple things; the anonymous, the tiny...
by Kate Fuglei | Jan 12, 2022 | Featured, Guest Writers
Holiday Past For nearly ten years our Army son was not home during the holidays. Sometimes it was because it was his turn to take over guard duty at the base so colleagues who had children could share the holiday with their little ones. At other times it was because...
by Michaela Klundt | Jan 10, 2022 | Education, Guest Writers
The Start of a New Chapter Graduating college during a pandemic is an accomplishment in itself. I was high on this achievement and ready to take on the world. After graduating, I had a perfect plan I was ready to put into action: I would finish college, apply to...
by Kate Fuglei | Dec 21, 2021 | Guest Writers
Family “Pardon me for talking while you’re interrupting.” This snarky comment was often used in my family of origin as a verbal jab, an aggressive reminder to listen. We were a large, boisterous, loud family of story-tellers and attention-seekers. One of my...
by Erika Satie | Dec 12, 2021 | Guest Writers
Crave The Love Have you taken the time to really listen to what your heart is trying to tell you, and have you ever noticed just how much we crave loving ourselves, even when that seems to be the last thing on our list to do each day? Daily, we are bombarded with the...
by Aman Majmudar | Dec 8, 2021 | Education, Guest Writers
My math teacher, strict and officious, was looking for me. That morning we’d finished a back-to-school math test. He seldom looked for his students after tests, so it must have been serious. I was worried. I’d actually enjoyed the exam. It gave me a chance to see...
by Cheryl Farrell | Nov 27, 2021 | Guest Writers, Social Issues
Guest contributor Cheryl Farrell finds a metaphor for life in temporary housing. Many of life’s changes come with an uneasy transition period—that state of limbo between where we are now and where we end up. Even the changes we want to occur have this unnerving stage....
by Kate Fuglei | Nov 14, 2021 | Featured, Guest Writers
California Three years ago, when my husband was offered a job in Brooklyn, we jumped at the chance. We’d lived in Greenwich Village years ago, before our two sons were born. Before we’d moved to Studio City. Before the friendships made through years of parenting,...
by Natalie Soriano | Nov 4, 2021 | Guest Writers, Uncategorized
I am a champion for change… when it comes to everybody else When someone tells me about a desire they have, I immediately start “What If” Upping for them, and all my creative energy flows in the direction of their dreams. I will hold that space and I feel the...
by Jeanette DuBois | Nov 2, 2021 | Guest Writers
I planted one foot in front of the other, feeling into each step as I allowed my hips and arms to swing wide. Breathing in deeply, slowly, my lungs filled up with the crisp fall air. I could smell the prior day’s rain in the damp leaves on the ground around me, and...
