In a traditional Catholic grade school like mine, even love had its rules. Valentine’s Day was no exception. Ahem, that’s St. Valentine’s Day, which honors an ancient Roman martyr Valentinus, executed on Feb. 14. In third grade, I had a slightly offbeat nun who seemed to revel in the idea...
Self-Development
The Surprising Lesson I Learned from Having COVID
It will surprise no one that COVID kills. What’s not so obvious is the broad reach of its devastation. For me, it was about killing my belief in myself. I was poised to complete a final round of interviews for my research that would be the basis for the last...
Identity Burn Out and the Digital You
Yesterday I was looking back at some old blog posts from 2002, my first year of blogging. At the time blogging platforms were next to nonexistent, so I took to pasting my posts onto webpages like a dork. In 2007 I shifted to WordPress, and in 2008 my book RenGen:...
Getting to Your Essence: A Lesson from Buckminster Fuller
Recognizing what makes us a whole person at our core should feel natural, but it so often eludes us in rocky times. Tuning into your innermost essence can help you navigate the next chapter of your life, and make the difference you need to make. For decades, I’ve drawn inspiration...
What Makes Content Delicious? 4 Key Ingredients
Like so many days during COVID, I was out of ideas for what to make for dinner. That’s how I discovered that my cherished copy of a NYT Cooking special insert was missing from its usual place. It’s a collection of “no-fail” recipes from food contributor Sam Sifton. Breaking the...