The pandemic has often felt like one long, silent retreat. But this past summer, life felt more like a sci-fi movie when my son and I took a trip to my home state of Ohio.
Read More
Last week, I saw a twenty-something at the gym sporting a swept back ponytail of gray with just a touch of aubergine. It was gorgeous. Her locks reminded me of early 80’s punk. If I’d had my camera, I’d have asked her to pose for me and she’d probably have declined in a badass way.
My young dental hygienist has a similar pearly shade. When I commented on it she replied, “Yeah, I get a lot of compliments. It balances out my folks’ hatred of it.” Rebellious.
Read More
“He thought Patagonia was an actual place!” I blurted out to Julie on our drive. I was a shoe-in for Overheard LA. I reminded myself to be grateful for all the pricey tech gear I’d been collecting for years, even if I do wait for the annual 50% off sale.
Read More
The Udelsons are like German Shepherds or Labrador Retrievers - hip dysplasia runs in our family. In high school, I suffered from so much pain, I saw an orthopedist. “You have bad hips and big boobs. No jogging,” he declared. Despite his inappropriate comments about my breasts, I was delighted to have been given permission to not run.
Read More
Authenticity leaves room for imperfection. There’s vulnerability in not being perfect, in showing passion and commitment, allowing space for being human – this was the point of the lesson. It changed my teaching, and it changed my life.
Read More
I’m a Volvo mom, but it didn’t start out that way. In the mid 80’s, I arrived in Los Angeles driving a tiny tan Subaru wagon with a stick shift, it’s fender pockmarked from my dad fixing a dent with a hammer. I moved in with my aunt and uncle in Encino, unemployed until the house painter hooked me up with a guy who produced movie trailers. I got hired as an assistant editor, packed the Subaru and fled the Valley for Beverly Hills, like the Hillbillies. “Y’all come back now, ya hear?”
Read More
“Have you been hiking with your dog lately?” the tatted millennial groomer asked. He’d just pulled a large, bloated tick off of Rudy’s anus. “Do you want to see the wound?” he wondered. “I guess,” I hesitantly replied. Though I fancy myself a closet doctor, I’m not too interested in examining my dog’s ass.
Read More
Based on previous short-lived attempts and apathy, I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions. So instead of a resolution, I hereby announce my intention for 2019. This year, I will reinforce my existing commitment: Respond. Don’t react. I’m applying this commitment to any pain I may be experiencing, be it physical or emotional. When I sit with difficult feelings, they eventually subside.
Read More
Yesterday was October 31 – Halloween – my son Theo’s favorite holiday. He dressed up as “The Death of Democracy“. Best costume ever, especially in light of the upcoming midterm elections. My self-regulating kid eats three pieces of candy a day for a week, then we take our leftovers to the Venice fire department. Those guys can afford the calories. I hope they have dental insurance.
Read More
“Habits are undeniably useful tools, relieving us of a need to run a complex mental operation every time we’re confronted with a new task or situation. Yet they also relieve us of the need to stay awake to the world: to attend, feel, think, and then act in a deliberate manner. If you need to be reminded how completely mental habit blinds us to experience, just take a trip to an unfamiliar country. Suddenly you wake up!”– Michael Pollan
Read More
“If I’ve learned one thing in life, it’s not to be so judgmental of other people” - Patti Smith
Read More
I’m all soft and vulnerable from a three-day silent meditation retreat at Spirit Rock in Northern California. Yes, a Chatty Cathy like me enjoys the quiet. The not talking isn’t the hard part. It’s the sitting for long periods til your back throbs and your knees feel like door knobs. It’s the mind tripping that goes on, and the epiphany about oneself that’s pretty much guaranteed. Those are the hard parts. Sitting with yourself. Then comes the revelation - clarity.
Read More
“How puzzling all these changes are! I'm never sure what I'm going to be, from one minute to another.”
Alice, from Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland
Saturday was a profound day, reminders at morning noon and night that we are all hanging by a thread, to be “curiouser and curiouser”, like Alice in the book, unafraid of the rabbit hole. We can choose fear or decide to walk through the little portal into adventure, making the most of whatever time we have here on earth.
Read More
Like the muscles used between smiling versus frowning, it takes more effort to be cruel than to be kind. Kindness alters experience and changes the world locally and globally.
Read More
“Anger is an Energy…” - John Lydon
Read More
My complete blood count (CBC) was in December. I get the test every three months, and had a big drop in my numbers early last fall. Over the summer, we’d been to Tuscany, Barcelona, a ranch in Montana and the wilds of suburban Ohio, and travel takes a toll on me. Besides, running around with a ten-year-old boy is tough any mom, let alone an old one like me with a rare bone marrow failure disorder.
Read More
If you’re paying attention, the answers are right in front of you. Beware, they are easy to overlook. We are so busy being busy - it’s the message we receive – wake up earlier, work longer, try harder.
Read More
This is my own true story
Read More