Second Son's graduation has me thinking about how I show up as a mom. I tell you, it's not how I thought I would back before I was one. When I became a mother, something inside me changed. Something went a little left. It's like a secret code was activated and now inside me lives a fierce warrior. When pushed, she pushes back. Hard.

Three years ago, I wrote about the value of a high school diploma. On this morning of Second Son's high school graduation, I'm proud to say he was one of the students who decided to flip the bird at me and cross over to the other side of the room.

My mind gets scattered all over the place. I catch myself thinking more than one thing at a time, and it’s like I have to decide which thing to pay attention to. It’s hard to tune things out so I can pay attention to ONLY one thing. Hence why I find meditation so difficult. Yet, also why I can’t leave it alone. But that whole issue is one of the...

I don’t know how not to lead. That might sound strange to you, but it’s true. I am almost pathologically unable to sit still, be quiet, not jump in and take charge, particularly if there’s a problem to be solved. I do know how to follow, but when there’s a gaping void of leadership, I can’t ignore it. I must fill it. It’s how...

It’s 10:30pm on Sunday night, and I’m sitting in my office with my two sons. We’re each kind of doing our own thing, but we’re doing it while carrying on a conversation…relating…BEing together. We just finished watching “I Am Sam” starring Sean Penn. We’re all kind of catching our breath. A hundred different...

I have been drooling over iPads for a year now. I got my first Mac on March 5th of last year and fell IN LOVE immediately. The iPad was coming out in April, and I seriously thought about buying one then, but decided to upgrade my cell phone to an iPhone, instead. You see, the previous 4 years I’d had a laptop, and wasn’t quite sure I wanted to be...

Awareness sucks. There. I said it. Awareness is that critical ingredient that makes playing dumb, ignoring what’s right in front of my face, just plain impossible for me. But, I try…oh, how I try sometimes. But awareness always kicks my ass and wins. Now, I don’t help myself much, either, I must admit. I am constantly putting myself in...

I just did one of the hardest things to do as a mom: I pushed my baby out of the nest. Oldest Son came back to live at home, yet AGAIN, this past July. When he came home, he had a job, a car, a driver’s license, and car insurance. Gradually over the months since, he lost all of those. In addition, he lost his sense of autonomy and somehow lost track of his...

When friends behave strangely, act out of character, or do something that in any other situation, with anyone else, you might take offense, take a deep breath and give them the benefit of the doubt. Ask yourself, “If the situation were reversed, what would I want most from me right now?” Then do that. Because you care. Because you, too, make...

My friends know that I’m quite cerebral…always good for a unique perspective or a question no one’s thought to ask quite that way. I can entertain myself for hours with ideas. So it would come as no surprise to them that I like TED talks…introduced to me in 2010 by a kindred cerebral friend. On this first Sunday of the new year, I ask you to...