My godchild Elizabeth Bellamy Brown — Ellie — graduates this year. There are all sorts of reasons why I love Ellie and not just because she’s my godchild. Mostly, she’s generous, funny, and has no filter. She says exactly what she means, which is what most of us long to do. She also has Asperger’s Syndrome and OCD, which, if you read my recent blog “Our Battle With OCD,” makes me love her that much more. [Read more…] about Celebrating Ellie
writing
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
Battling Resistance
Last week, I didn’t post a blog. I could say this happened because I traveled to NYC for several meetings and needed to pour all my energy into preparation, but I’d be lying. In truth, the real culprit was not my travel schedule, but Resistance. I was just scared to post something and used the trip as my rationalization. The consequence: since I didn’t post a blog last week, writing a blog this week has been that much harder. [Read more…] about Battling Resistance
Inspiration for the Journey
Doing my taxes this week, I sat surrounded by a sea of expense receipts, all glaring reminders that far more cash went out in 2011 than came in. I’ll be honest — sometimes in those moments, it’s hard not to ask myself, “Exactly why am I an artist?” and I romanticize about my days as a consultant when income was plentiful. I wonder briefly why I stopped doing that work and then I remember: Oh, yeah. I was miserable.