In 1918, my great-grandmother, Frances Pengelski, was married with two babies under two years old, living in relative poverty in Brooklyn. I was fortunate to know my nana well. The year I […]
Lessons from Nana
Dear Sister: A Gratitude Letter
Dear Sister, A friend is doing a gratitude diary and it’s been helping her a lot, so I thought I’d try as well. I believe in the practice of gratitude, have seen […]
Doing the Dishes at 50 or How to Change Your Perspective on the Mundane
My niece is 22 years old. She has Cystic Fibrosis. Ginny’s life has bent towards a timeline. When she was born, CF patients lived until they were 14. When she was 14, the […]
Thanksgiving
It seems almost impossible to be thankful when everything is falling apart around us. . . . Yet conventional wisdom tells us, “It’s not happy people who are grateful. It’s grateful people who are happy.” Interestingly, recent scientific research backs this up.
Dear Holiday Season
Thanks for lights in the dark afternoons and evenings. Thanks for people saying “Happy holidays,” because it takes a little more thought and goodwill to say those things than the regular “Have […]
Acceptance Speech
by Lynn Powell The radio’s replaying last night’s winners and the gratitude of the glamorous, everyone thanking everybody for making everything so possible, until I want to shush the faucet, dry my […]
