The V-Word

“Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art.” -Frank Lloyd Wright

Funny how just deciding to have more fun, to relax into the game of it all for only one day has been like a system re-boot. It is almost magical how giving up the need to get it done transforms anxious urgency into a steadfast rhythm, seemingly without effort. At least this is how the day...

“If it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right” -Bob Basso

This is one of the most challenging parts of positivity for me to keep my eye on, the fun quotient. I forget often about having fun and, worse still, fall out of touch with just the fact that the whole point of life should be fun. I don’t know why being so serious seems so much more adult to me or if it just a bad habit, but between the...

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable...

“Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so is he.” -Publilius Syrus  (Roman author, 1st century B.C.)

Here’s the thing about getting what you want… then you have to do it. I have been envisioning myself as a public inspirational speaker for years. Anyone who knows me would agree I have a lot to say, but still, giving a speech is different than talking. A speech, especially a short one,...

“This just might hurt a little…love hurts sometimes when you do it right…..Don’t be afraid of a little bit of pain, pleasure is on the other side…” -John Legend

These two lines are some of the best music lyrics I have ever heard and being crooned to in John Legend’s honey voice doesn’t hurt to bring home the message. This is the truth about love and life, that often when we do it right it still...

“There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.” –Arnold Bennett

I married into a family whose primary operating principle was “If something is wrong, don’t talk about it.” Even as a young woman in my early twenties, I knew instinctively that silence in...

“The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize.”  ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

School politics and reform has always been a vocation of sorts for me. My first child had special needs when she was young so I learned a great deal early on about the magic that can happen in a class room. In one of my daughter’s first immersion classes, Mark, a graduate student in...

“Sometimes a breakdown can be the beginning of a kind of breakthrough, a way of living in advance through a trauma that prepares you for a future of radical transformation.”  -Cherrie Moraga

There are days when despite our best efforts, stuff, systems and relationships break down. Early morning, I listen for election results. The progressive movement that inspired the country a couple short years...

Learn to listen for and respond to your libido… Dr. Diana Hoppe’s author of  Healthy Sex Drive, Healthy You: What Your Libido Reveals About Your Lifeshares her insights and wisdom on discovering the pathway back to your sexual self. Gain new understanding of your body, your brain and the processes that promote sexual health. Intimacy is sparked by everything from communication to learning to take...