Most of us are probably familiar with Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.” I remember that I wrote my AP English exam on it back in high school, which means it must have left quite the impression since that was 800 years ago. The metaphor of two diverging paths…

I walk the dog every day around the same time in the morning, so I see the same people who share my routine. There’s my neighbor down the street with her 10-month-old German shepherd puppy. There are my former masters swimming buddies with one or two of their friends. …

Recently, as part of a summer classic movie series, I saw Star Wars: A New Hope at my local theater. After the movie, there was a talk, so the lecturer came on stage before the film started to prime the audience for what he wanted us to be attentive to…

A very dear friend went through a long, difficult year of medical problems, and I accompanied her for many of her appointments, some of which would last much of the day. Because she is truly dear and an amazing person, we would be talking and laughing as she underwent treatment…

I’m taking some courses on positive psychology both for self-enrichment and as research for a next book I wish to write. Martin Seligman, founder of positive psychology, came to these ideas when he served as president of the American Psychological Association. Psychologists and psychiatrists use a text called the Diagnostic…

Like everyone, I’ve been trying to make sense of two mass shootings in the United States that took place within 10 days of each other. Of course, they don’t make sense at all. They are impossibly senseless. Yet our minds are uncomfortable with the senseless. We want to understand. We…

I recently stumbled across a Facebook post where someone asked what she needed to pack for visiting Disney World. I’m a Disney nerd with an annual pass, so I was curious. The suggestions included moleskin (for blisters), flip flops (to put on during rain storms), an umbrella, ponchos…

It’s graduation time. If Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, as the song proclaims, graduation is the most wonderfully terrifying. For what comes next? As an English professor, I see this with my students. Unlike degrees such as accounting where the career path is obvious, my students…

This will be my third Mother’s Day without my mom. Only not really, because in a true and deep way, my mother is here within me. When Mom was alive, she would tell anyone who would listen, “This is my daughter.” As Mom’s dementia got worse, she would tell everyone…