A Good Kind of Rejection

A friend and I are going chapter by chapter through the book It’s Not Your Money by Tosha Silver. We had both read it before, but not one chapter a week as the author suggests. There’s a very important section in the book where the author talks about getting rid of clutter. Casting out the...

Your Friends May Not Be Your Audience

I was watching an episode of Fresh Off the Boat last night in which Jessica realized her husband had never finished reading the novel she wrote. It reminded me of something my marketing-manager husband once said, “Your friends and family are not your audience.” He’s not entirely correct, of course. Some of your friends and...

Come in From the Cold

There’s a line in the Carrie Newcomer song, “Betty’s Diner,” that says, “Despair and hope sit face to face when you come in from the cold.” She’s talking about a gathering place where people from all walks of life arrive to accept nourishment and a kind word. They come looking for hope. Ordinarily, I love...

Where Work and Worry Meet

Today, a close member of our family had major surgery, and another had a minor procedure that concerned me a bit. It’s hard to focus on work when you’re worried. You tell yourself that everything will be fine and you must assume the best. You tell yourself you are “professional” enough to not let fear...