You are never stronger . . . than when you land on the other side of despair.- Zadie Smith
What She Said, May 16: Zadie Smith
What She Said, May 15: Joyce Carol Oates
Keeping busy is the remedy for all the ills in America. It’s also the means by which the creative impulse is destroyed.- Joyce Carol Oates
Lessons from Nana
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 […]
Tucked Away by Ann LaBar Russek
It’s a New Year and time to “untuck” in 2020. Find some time with pen in hand, and let loose those private aspirations, those longings you’ve kept tucked away for a very […]
Poetry Chain Letter
I’ve recently been the recipient of a handful of chain email plans, all with one idea: share quotes from poems that have been meaningful, inspiring, or comforting to you. The details of […]
For My Birthday I’m Marie Kondo’ing My Mind
I saw George Kalogridis, the current President of Walt Disney World, at an event in Orlando recently. Someone said to him, “Of course, you know Alice.” He had the same you-look-so familiar-to-me […]
When Girls Make Noise
Kari O’Driscoll’s piece, “When Girls Make Noise,” at The Manifest-Station caught my attention when I was busy with something else, almost as if it interrupted. I loved the title, and the first line spoke […]
Meditation for Skeptics
A standard message for motivational speakers and writers of self-help books is to promise that, if you do what the book suggests, you will have success. Often there’s an element of magic […]
A Humanitarian Wedding Feast in Turkey
A Turkish bride and groom opted to feed 4,000 Syrian refugees instead of holding a traditional wedding reception. Fethullah Üzümcüoğlu and Esra Polat weighed feeding their family and friends against feeding those […]
The Exact Right Thing
by Anne Lamott You know how sometimes you go to church or temple or mosque, or to those little meetings for people like you, who perhaps have tiny control issues, or used […]
