When Temptation Comes, Tell Yourself This Story
Today I celebrated not giving in to an obvious temptation. Perhaps this victory will carry over into larger, more insidious ones. I’ve been thinking about temptation all day. Daniel Defoe, one of the first known novelists, wrote that “we are instruments of our own destruction.” We hurry towards things that are not good for us. […]
Being Futile and Unproductive for Love
Today, I searched for a missing Polly Pocket shoe. The shoe in question is about the size of two grains of rice. Polly Pocket shoes are the bane of my existence. And we have so many containers of them. We have 8 years worth of Polly Pocket garage sale finds, gifts, and hand-me-downs that our […]
3 Questions that Set Me Straight
This time last year, I was mad about everything. I was jealous of other mothers and their resplendent brunches, their new jewelry, and their country club life. Why couldn’t I just have more money? I was jealous that Rob Reiner was filming a movie, “Flipped,” in my old backyard (the one I left to move […]
A Gift for Every Mother You Know
Today was chilly, windy (hair in my face no matter which way I pushed it around), and gloomy. We drove out into the country to a far-off nursery to buy some berry bushes for my latest gardening adventure. And when I say country, I mean country. The roads were unmarked, narrow, and tumbling over the […]
7 Beautiful Things
1. Hearing that my neighbors are celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary by recreating their first dates.2. Seeing a brown bunny with a huge cotton tail hopping in the yard.3. Putting maraschino cherries in my drink just because.4. Listening to my husband on the phone as he arranged to borrow a truck to deliver compost to […]
Why You Should Make a Fool of Yourself
Some students who regularly frequent local bars recently told me that the reason why college students drink so much is because it’s the only time they don’t feel self-conscious. Alcohol makes them feel free to be themselves. Without it, they worry so much about making a fool of themselves. Today I reasoned that making […]
The Extra Chair Revolution
A revolutionary is a person who actively participates in a revolution. A revolution, I just read, is defined as: a drastic and far-reaching change of thought and behavior. Defined this way, I like to think about my search for daily flair as a revolution for me. It’s a daily choice to find the good, the […]
2 Ways to Handle Life Transitions with Flair
You can handle a transition (new job, end of a semester, a new marriage, a death, a birth, anything new) by: 1. Reminding Yourself of your Personal Mission Statement 2. Imagining a Kite I know, this is not what you expected today. Let me explain. I get depressed and anxious every time I enter a […]
Sound the Alarm!
Apparently, word spread that I wasn’t in church yesterday. “What did you tell people?” I asked my husband. I was in bed, still in my pajamas, destined for the flu. “That you were tired, really stressed-out, and probably getting sick,” he said. Meanwhile, he collected the children to take them to an afternoon movie […]
Why Professors Can Also Be Christians
It’s possible to be a scholar and a Christian. It’s possible to study neuroscience, understand the process behind how we age fossils, know the mechanism of evolution, immerse yourself in various spiritual paths and still proclaim, with a resounding “yes,” that Jesus Christ is the one true God. Many professors have deeply held spiritual beliefs. […]