Musings

In times of despair, when the present feels dark and the future bleak, the one essential emotion that may help us hang on is hope. Maybe that's why this poem, shared recently by my friend Lisa,...

We lost my 87-year-old father-in-law a week ago. Gabe was a contradictory man, curious and cultured, self-effacing and kind, yet stubborn and curmudgeonly at times. In 1966, he led a daring escape...

There's an epidemic of loneliness. We've all heard it. However bad it was before Covid, it's worse now. Especially for those hunkering down solo, with little...

I recently read In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Hungarian-born Canadian physician Dr. Gabor Maté. It's an unflinching look at the addiction epidemic from someone who's been on the front lines of...

A number of my friends and family members are struggling. No, not the run-of-the-mill Covid malaise so many of us are experiencing. I'm talking about protracted mental health issues—including...

Pre-Covid, I was invited, to spend a week giving workshops at Rancho La Puerta, a spa just over the border from San Diego in Tecate, Mexico. I won’t mince words: the place is magical. Set on 3,000...

When I turned 50 and was searching for my next chapter, after working in corporate America and raising my twin daughters, I decided to start by interviewing women who had navigated the midlife...

Recently, we received a letter from a complete stranger, a man named Phillip, whose return address showed him living a couple of blocks away from our Chicago home. The letter read, in part: "This is...

A few months ago, I attended a virtual talk by Leslie Ferris Yerger, who was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer at 55, two months after an all-clear mammogram and ultrasound. She later learned...