My husband and I moved into our home nine years ago. Before we bought this house, I moved 16 times in 16 years. By the time I arrived to NH, I had boxes of my personal belongings — or as the great George Carlin would say, boxes of my “stuff” — stashed in attics and storage units all along the Eastern seaboard as well as overseas in Ireland. I was eager to have all of my things in one place, although at that point, I couldn’t really remember what most of those things were. [Read more…] about Going Through Stuff
creativity
Life is Too Short
You all know I’m a big fan of stepping into our differences and out of our comfort zones. But we also have to be realistic about our creative strengths and weaknesses. This hilarious clip from the BBC show “Life is Too Short” makes the point when Liam Neeson wants to break into comedy. Since I’m also a fan of the creative process, I’ve included the clip that features bloopers from the actors as they try to pull off the scene. Enjoy!
Remembering Who We Are
Several years ago, a dear friend of mine held an intimate dinner for her 50th birthday party. She didn’t invite me. The exclusion hurt a great deal. We’d spoken daily for the past two if not three years, we’d guided each other through major personal crises, and enjoyed a cup of tea or a meal together at least once a week. We were close friends, I thought; it never occurred to me I wouldn’t be included. When I asked her why, she bumbled through several excuses and then finally said, “Well, you know. You have that big personality.”
The Importance of Being Vulnerable
In a recent video on storytelling seen on Carson Daly’s Last Call, The Moth founder George Dawes Green states great storytelling depends on vulnerability. I wanted to really understand that word, so I revisited several definitions including this one from The Oxford Dictionary: susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm. Sounds like a pretty scary place to be. [Read more…] about The Importance of Being Vulnerable
Why Good Things Happen to Good People
Good things are happening to good people, and it’s all because they’ve WORKED VERY HARD. To start with, several of my fellow storytellers from The Moth got a terrific and well-deserved write-up in Wednesday’s NY Times. The article featured the multi-talented Ophira Eisenberg — host of next week’s Moth Mainstage in Boston where I’ll be performing — and Adam Wade, a native of New Hampshire, my current home. In addition to hosting his own show in NYC, he’s won at least 18 Moth StorySLAMS. He won another StorySLAM earlier this week, so the count’s probably an unbelievable 19. [Read more…] about Why Good Things Happen to Good People