P is for positive intent
"Look to their positive intent, especially when they appear to have none." -Kare Anderson In 2008, I am going to assume positive intent. Assuming positive intent isn’t a new concept, but I think it has far-ranging implications. The conversation changes and opens up when we assume positive intent. It has …
Q is for quivering
"Try to keep your soul young and quivering right up to old age." – George Sand In 2008, I’m going to quiver more right here at home. Oh, my. Talking with the former poet laureate of the United States is a fine (if nerve wracking and completely terrifying and rattling) …
Three Billys and two Johnnys
As if the leaves from London weren’t enough. As if getting hotel clerks all over the world to paint pictures of flowers for me to receive on my arrival wasn’t enough. As if making lunches for my pregnant self and sending them by courier across D.C. to my office in …
R is for remember
Christmas Day is my father’s birthday. His death at fifty-three in 1980 is the fulcrum around which my life moves. Or perhaps that’s not exactly it. Perhaps it is a rivet on which things hinge. No, a grommet through which everything else is laced? Yes, since that would imply a …
S is for show up like magic
In 2008, I’m going to show up. Like magic. There are a handful of blogs I go to first when I see they’ve been updated in my bloglines reader. One is Dave Pollard’s "How to Save the World." This week, he pointed his readers to a blog entry by Jan …
T is for thirty-seven
Live ever in a new day. – Ralph Waldo Emerson In 2008, I’m going to live each day as if I only had 37 days left. Really. I’m going to wake up every morning and ask myself this question before I drink my lavender earl grey tea or brush my …
U is for unlearn
“The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn.” –Gloria Steinem In 2008, I will focus on unlearning rather than learning. Suzuki Roshi said in the prologue to Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind, "In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in …
V is for vegan
"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons, they were not created for men anymore than black people were created for whites or women for men." -Alice Walker In 2008, I will transition to a vegan diet. My goal is to live a more cruelty-free life by eliminating …
W is for wellness
“The concept of total wellness recognizes that our every thought, word, and behavior affects our greater health and well-being. And we, in turn, are affected not only emotionally but also physically and spiritually.” – Greg Anderson In 2008, I want to focus on wellness, not weight. I’m tired of “America’s …
Voice mail
Um. I’m a grown woman. I’ve done things in my life, traveled the world, written books, birthed two babies, married Mr Brilliant, learned how to play bass clarinet and oboe and bassoon, escorted the first woman on the PRC Central Committee around the U.S. for a month, built gingerbread castles …
