Lessons in Failure

When my high school mentor passed on, I went to her Celebration of Life. This amazing woman, my English teacher, gave me so much in so many ways over the years I knew her. Clare Nunes was wise, witty, warm, inspirational, delightful, devastatingly funny. I loved her and she loved me. One of my favorite…

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A Playroom Full of Sorrow

It took me at least ten minutes to figure out what was happening. I’d gone to the library with my toddler, to the children’s playroom. As is often the case, we found many kids and caregivers. Only that day someone else was in the room, a woman sitting on a computer and typing. She looked…

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The Two Letter Word that Changed Everything

Sometimes I look for signs. What I hadn’t expected was a sign. An actual sign. A sign on the side of the road. I was down in West Springfield and had gotten myself turned around. While make a U-turn, I saw a beautiful monastery seated up high on the hill. At the bottom, a sign.…

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And then she started screaming, “Stop!”

I’d looked down the long hall of the room towards the older children. I wanted them to see something. I had the toddler by the hand, standing directly in front of me. For that brief moment when I called out to the older kids and turned in their direction, the two year old lifted a…

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The Dangers of Yoga

When I began my application to the Kripalu School of Yoga, I came to the question: “What form of yoga do you study?” I went to my teacher in New Haven, (at the time I was studying at Yale Divinity School), and I asked her: “What kind of yoga do we do here?” She said…

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The 10 Essential Do’s and Don’ts of Yoga Practice

The new year brings with it the earnest, hopeful and eager desires of our hearts to do things differently. Some decide, at the turn of the calendar, to begin yoga or to begin yoga again. Here then, from my nearly forty years of studying yoga, is a humble offering of ESSENTIALS as you begin or begin again…

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Did I mention I bought some goats (before the hay)?

In the classic Dr. Seuss book, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!, there’s a page about one of the places we often end up in: The Waiting Place. Here you’ll find a brilliant description of a place some of us stay in for too long, a place where everyone is simply waiting, waiting for something, for anything,…

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My divorce taught me what doesn’t matter (and what does)

When I got married, my first husband and I decided that I would stay home with the children. Every one has their reasons. Ours certainly came out of the financial situation. What I made would barely cover daycare costs. But it also came out of a value-heavy conversation. I wanted to stay home with the baby. My…

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