One summer when I was in college, I worked as an orientation leader giving tours and presentations to prospective students and their families. I not only worked full-time but also refused to let my first serious job interfere with my desire to attend summer concerts, hang out with friends, and dance until the wee hours of the morning. It was a beautiful, if exhausting, time. So my favorite assignment was taking a group to the art museum on campus, which featured an interactive art display that summer. It was the best. A low, cushioned table about 15 feet long was set up in the middle of the ..read more

When I was around 4 or 5 years old, my dad took my sister and I to run some errands. We stopped at his credit union and discovered that they were hosting a coloring contest for kids. They handed us each a piece of paper that had the same design for everyone to draw on. We did our best to color our pictures beautifully. I seem to recall that there was a prize for the best one, though I don't remember what it was. I also don't remember what the image was that we were bringing to life, except that it had clouds on it. The clouds were important because in addition to using crayons to fill in the ..read more

When I was around 4 or 5 years old, my dad took my sister and I to run some errands. We stopped at his credit union and discovered that they were hosting a coloring contest for kids. They handed us each a piece of paper that had the same design for everyone to draw on. We did our best to color our pictures beautifully. I seem to recall that there was a prize for the best one, though I don't remember what it was. I also don't remember what the image was that we were bringing to life, except that it had clouds on it. The clouds were important because in addition to using crayons to fill in the l ..read more

I've been thinking a lot lately about what kind of writer I am. I've known my entire life that I am a writer, but sometimes I lose track of what that actually means. When I was a kid, I wrote stories, illustrated them, and gave them to my family as gifts. Some of them started off with a list of all the characters and their names. For example, "There were six children. Their names were Peter, Susan, Jonny, Klcena, Paul, and Lucy." I think I did this because I had to organize these new companions I was meeting in my mind. There was a unique one about Yarlo the yo-yo who stood up to bullies. And ..read more

My word for 2023 was hero. It summed up everything I was going through as I moved from my victim mentality to being my own hero. It was my guiding principal as I made my way through the year. And what a year it was. Sometimes in order to make a quantum leap forward, you have to shift some deep foundations within. And that's exactly what I did. I peeled back the layers so far that I stirred up the muck at the bottom of my deep subconscious. I made some massive changes in my business. And I ended the year with big opportunities (aka challenges) that left me feeling like I was in a forge. You kno ..read more

Call me a nonconformist, but I don't buy gifts during the holidays. Instead, I realized years ago that I much prefer giving someone a gift when I know they need something or I see something they would use and enjoy—even if that happens to be on a Wednesday in August. Yet I certainly feel the expectation that in order to show my love for those I care about, I need to give them a tangible item in December. Preferably wrapped up in a gorgeous box with a pretty bow. This is no accident. Consumerism was designed into our culture and intentionally interwoven into our rituals and spiritual satisfacti ..read more

My love for libraries goes way back to my childhood. I've always felt safe in the quiet, well-organized rows and rows of shelves. Growing up, I was surrounded by good books. I visited the library often, checking out more books than I could easily carry. I wanted to read every single book there, a feat I never accomplished though I certainly made an admirable attempt. When the Scholastic book fair came to school, my mom allowed me to buy as many books as I wanted. I poured through the leaflet, circling anything that made me at all curious. And I wanted to know everything—what happened in each b ..read more

I started writing this blog, Living a Life Imagined, over 7 years ago. I heard that's the amount of time it takes our bodies to regenerate new cells throughout our entire bodies. Which is fascinating and mind-boggling on so many levels. But I'm not a geneticist or biologist, so if you want more scientific details, you'll have to ask Google. (Then please let me know!) But what I can tell you is that in that time, I have successfully made the switch from being an attorney to being a writer. I've published two stories, a children's chapter book and a sci-fi short story inspired by my childhood wi ..read more

This blog focuses on positivity, on bringing people up, on celebrating what's good and empowering and creative in the world. But it's not about sugarcoating the difficult aspects of life. I often wonder about the duality of good and bad, light and darkness. Our world is full of both. These forces are so inherent in all of us; I don't believe a life can only have one or the other. Yet I question why the dark exists in a way I rarely do with the light. Does my experience with depression mean I'm doing something wrong or is this just the way life is? So I actively seek out inspiring news, heartwa ..read more

I miss school. I miss the structure of a syllabus, the organization of assigned work, and the clarity of metrics determining whether you've successfully completed the task or not. Above all, I miss the pure dedication to one task at a time. Sure, I had jobs, sports, friends, and other commitments on the side. But school was always my priority. It was my main gig. It was what determined my schedule; it dictated both what I would do each day and when I would take breaks throughout the year. Yes, it was hard and there were days, especially in law school, when I wished for the constant studying an ..read more