Somewhere around age 7, my mother enrolled me in a dance class. Ballet. I lived in small town Wisconsin where there wasn’t a selection of dance studios, YMCA’s or parks and rec offerings. But we had June, 50ish as my memory recalls, a retired dancer with a warm engaging smile of bright red lips, who tricked out her basement with mirrors, ballet barres and wood floors. She taught three classes – ballet, jazz, and baton twirling. Baton twirling? In a basement? Oh well, we were seven, and it was Continue Reading

Ahhh, Christmas, that special time of year when too many people over stress, over shop, and over spend, all for the sake of giving the perfect gifts. Do we select a gift based on practicality, or is it something a bit more special, maybe something the gift receiver wouldn’t purchase? Do we ask for requests and then feel obligated to only give from that list regardless of the absurdity of the requests? Maybe the question to ask is “why am I giving this gift in the first place, and what kind of Continue Reading

I’ll acknowledge, hiding a package of cookies in my bedroom wasn’t a good strategy in my effort to lose weight, but I thought, out of sight, out of mind. The first night, I ate five; vanilla wafers cradling a double layer of chocolate fudge.  Just one cookie quickly slipped into five.  Perhaps I wasn’t quite as committed to this new weight loss plan as I had thought.For a long time… ok, basically, since the last time I walked out of gym class in high school, I have struggled with my Continue Reading

My good friend Kathy recently told me I had an old soul. She could immediately tell by the look of dismay on my face that I wasn’t complimented.“No, no, that’s not a bad thing,” she tried to defend herself.“It’s never a good thing when old is used to describe me,” I responded, not letting her off the hook.Well, guess what I’ve discovered? I do have an old soul, and how do I know this? Because I took the 10 question Facebook survey and who could possibly do a more credible job of assessing my Continue Reading