It was my second day in New York City, and I was immersed in a crowd of nervous hopefuls. 100 authors and experts, all eager to get publicity, were jammed into a large hotel ballroom, lining up to meet the nation’s top TV producers, radio hosts, and print media editors. When our number was called, … Read more →

When I was 16 years old, I trained to be a lifeguard. The lesson on our very first day surprised me. In the movies, the rescuer shouts, “I’ll save you!” then dives in and swims madly toward the drowning person. It turns out that in real rescues, you only get in the water as a … Read more →

Have you ever been with your family over the holidays, when all of a sudden, you revert to a much younger age? Maybe your parents or siblings say or do something that used to drive you nuts, and you find yourself becoming a resentful teenager. Or perhaps you slip back to your five-year-old self, trying … Read more →

One of my favorite quotes is, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”   Many of us get stuck in patterns of thoughts and behaviors that prevent us from getting where we want to be in life. For example, I would very much like to get … Read more →

In my graduate school library, there’s a really old, unreliable elevator. It’s so slow that it often takes a full ten minutes to get from the third floor to the first. Sometimes, it doesn’t come at all. As a joke, we nicknamed it “Godot,” referring to a Samuel Beckett play about two men waiting endlessly. … Read more →

“I want an Oompa Loompa, and I want it NOW!” screams little Veruca Salt to her father in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. While I dislike her spoiled brat character, I can certainly relate to her impatience and desire to get what she wants right now. Have you ever been in a “holding pattern” in your … Read more →