The librarian had laryngitis and I got goosebumps. Twenty-five first graders were lined up in their classroom, ready for their weekly trip to the school library. They were looking at me expectantly to lead the way. So I set off. The wrong way down the hall. “That’s the wrong way,” the little girl in the lead said in an appalled whisper, like I’d just peed in the corner. “Which way is it?” I whispered back conspiratorially. “I don’t know where …
Perspectives on a Clothesline
I just hung a clothesline. Back in my corporate life, in my air-conditioned cube with a peek-a-boo view of the sky, in front of my email and word docs and spreadsheets, I used to fantasize about having a clothesline. Warm sun, warm breeze, wholesome clean clothes. I had to hang the clothesline in the dog run. Where the puppy is supposed to poop. Luckily, he’ll have none of that, so there’s a perfect clothesline-alley next to our house. It isn’t …
Boiling Water and a Frog
I had a root canal and fell in a hole. My tooth had been hurting for a while, but of course it went acute on Friday night. I got through the weekend on ibuprofen and NyQuil, only to discover that my dentist doesn’t work on Mondays. Good for him. Bad for me. As the pain grew worse, my confidence and optimism dissolved. My attention focused on my jaw and the ebullient happiness of the last two months dried up, leaving …
Love and Puke
My 7-year-old was up all night puking. It made me think of my dad. When I puked as a kid, my dad would hold my hair out of my face and press a cold washcloth over my forehead. I remember feeling so miserable, and so loved. As I sat on the bathroom floor at 3:30 this morning, rubbing a miserable little boy’s back as he dry heaved into the toilet, I was thinking about Dad. He died on March 30, …
Party Girl
I went to a party. (I know, I’m going to blog about that? Really? Bear with me.) In my old life, going to a party would be the last thing I wanted to do. Particularly a party where I knew no one except the host. In my old life, I just wanted to be home with my partner and children. Quiet. The last thing I’d want to do after a long week at work was go out. The last thing …
140 Calories
A favorite coaching client of mine looked at me and said, “I am so weak.” I couldn’t disagree more. I was thinking, “You are strong.” So strong to admit a weakness; so strong to be so vulnerable. So strong to start. This client has lots of plans about what he wants to get from coaching, but what he wants – what he really, really wants – is to lose weight. Eighty pounds of it. When he imagines himself as an …
Belly Rubs
I told a favorite coaching client to stop being such a fucking puppy dog. This guy is a rock star at work (he just received a performance review that many of us have spent years aspiring to), but he always feels on the verge of failure. He’s constantly seeking validation in a corporate culture that doesn’t give it out much. This causes him some anxiety. Together, we named that need for external validation “Max.” He’s the puppy dog that needs constant …
Shy Girl
A first-grader at my children’s school was sitting by herself at the playground. When I volunteered in her classroom recently, everyone told me that she is very shy. She apparently doesn’t say a single word all day long. When she and I were reading together, every child walking past would assure me that “She’s really shy.” I asked her if she likes it when people say she’s shy. Slow shake of her head. I asked her what she would like …
Going Gray
Someone asked me today if I were “letting myself go gray.” I detected a note of incredulity in her question, but maybe I was being defensive. It all started with a blowsy woman I knew briefly awhile back. She was in her late 40s and had carefully foiled blonde hair. It seemed to me that she was trying very hard to look like a younger woman. Watching her, I decided that I don’t want to try that hard. It took …
100 Pieces of Clothing
I once read about somebody who intentionally limited their wardrobe to 100 pieces of clothing. I want that. Imagine the simplicity. The space. So this afternoon I purged my closet. My partner was not supportive. “Why would you throw away perfectly good clothes?” he asked. (This from a man who has issues throwing away old newspaper.) I’m not throwing them away, I’m recycling. I got most of them from Goodwill, they’re just going back for another round. I collected six …