Beginning Again

Hey, remember how proud I was of passing the written driving exam in Italian? Turns out, that was the easy part.  We thought we’d sail through the practical portion.  What hubris. Like a lot of Americans, Michael and I learned to drive, and got our original licenses on cars with automatic transmissions. Many folks I […]

Don’t Sweat It

It has been viciously hot here recently. It’s like all that solar energy just saps my own reserves and makes me good for nothing. I’m not yet wishing for winter but I’m surprised to find myself grateful that it’s only 30C/90F today. Never imagined saying that. The expression “turn up the heat” implies making something […]

Judge your progress, not yourself

Judge your progress, not yourself

Yesterday I was down in the dumps and angry at myself for my lack of progress. I could have been still coasting from another well-received musical event over the weekend, but instead I felt miserable and just kept wallowing in shame because I wasn’t where I thought I should be. My number one goal this […]

Big Girls Don’t Cry

The other week I landed a great opportunity. I was invited to submit an article proposal for an online magazine and my idea was accepted. I discussed it briefly with the editor, gave myself a short deadline, worked hard and wrote a piece I was really proud of. The day I turned it in I […]

Conversations With Yourself

How many of us talk to ourselves like this? “Way to go, good job, you got this, yep that’s the way.” Or does it sound more like, “You idiot. What do you think you’re doing? No one’s going to want that.” A lot of us who have trouble getting things done are very mean to […]