I went on a trip recently, and when I pulled up in front of the airport, I got out some money for the skycap. While he was processing my boarding pass and baggage tickets, I put some of the money I had pulled out for him back in my pocket. When I handed him a couple of dollars, he looked disgusted, and with asserted “stink-eye,” he told me that the norm is to tip two dollars per bag. After I got over my surprise at his lack of service-tact, I handed him the other two dollars I had for him,...

So you think you know what you want: But are you sure? 

When I was much younger and pondering having children as a life’s path, my girlfriend who had children said, “You should only have kids if you can’t live without having kids—it requires that much commitment.” When I really thought about it, I began to realize that while I had all the proper maternal instincts, the pressure to be a mom was more of a cultural society thing than my own real goal. I could live without making that...

Have you ever thought about your relationship with absolute strangers? Okay, so maybe you’ve thought about your relationship with strangers that you actually encounter during the day, but what about the ones you have never met? Maybe even those not even born yet? You know how coffee commercials always target the romance of sharing a cup of coffee with someone you love―and know? These commercials have often been successful in activating the emotional tug of wanting to sit with my mom one...

My husband and I met while I was on Maui on vacation and spent the next five months on the phone, back in the pre-Internet days. While “dating” long distance between Maui and California, we decided to ask a lot of questions to see if we were really compatible. (This is how my book, Intellectual Foreplay: Questions for Lovers and Lovers-to-Be was conceived.) Initially, I was focused on asking the right questions, paying close attention to his answers, trying to determine if he was the right...

In my last post, we explored what the cliché of what “Who You Really Are” actually means, and once defined, opened the question of how to access our most authentic selves. This question leads us to our next cliché’ of “being present.”

We have heard the term “be here now” for decades, but aren’t we all here? Now? Ironically, truth be told, few of us actually are, hence the need for the reminder. But why? Why do we need to reel our minds from wherever they wander back into the present...

Recently a business associate wrote me an e-mail complaining that I hadn’t yet sent him a document he had requested. I explained to him that I had moved offices and changed computers and was having a difficult time locating the document. His response was that since I was a writer and editor, he was disappointed; he expected me to be more organized. 

I had to laugh; if any of you have the same illusions, let me shatter them for you now.

There is no doubt...

We are all familiar with the concept of “spring cleaning” as a time for going through our physical belongings and removing the clothes that no longer fit, letting go of things we no longer need and organizing that which we want to keep. But have you ever considered the onset of Spring to be the perfect opportunity to let go of behaviors that no longer fit, clean up loose ends in old relationships, forgive those who have hurt us and apologize to the those who we may have harmed? Spring is...

This is part four of a series featuring the Five Essential Life Skills. The first three skills were: Remembering Who You Really Are, Self-Observation, and Transcending the Ego/ Letting Go.

The fourth step or skill is realigning with your authentic self. This step is very similar to step number one, remembering who you really are. However, remember as we might at the beginning of our day, it won’t be long (if we are observant) before we discover ourselves acting like who we really...

This is part two of a series featuring the Five Essential Life Skills. My last post featured the first of the skills, Remembering Who You Really Are.

The second essential life skill of self-observation may well be the most important. It seems so obvious and so simple and yet we are extremely unskilled and unpracticed at paying attention to our own thoughts, feelings, and actions. We tend to operate on “automatic pilot,” as if we have no control. The reality is that unless we know...