Swimming again after 40 years — 1981. Eleven-year-old me confidently stares down the competition on the swim deck at the city-wide Allied Gardens swim meet. I was taught not to brag, but I was assuredly coming home with multiple gold colored plastic medals, culminating in the 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay. As the best on…

Does anyone even try anymore? I really don’t want to be THAT person. You know, the ninety-year-old curmudgeon that complains about how superlative their generation is and how clueless every other generation was before or since? …

A trip to Italy reveals more than dramatic architecture and sublime pasta — Dreams of Italy should be dominated by breathtaking vistas over azure blue waters, strolls down quaint, narrow streets and spaghetti carbonara. Thoughts of personal failure, “fat” clothes, or cellulite shouldn’t hijack them. My family’s 2019 trip to Italy started years before, when my family agreed to host an exchange student…

I’m 50, I’m over it and you should be too — I worry. A lot. It’s exhausting. No need to remind you that we’ve all been through some things. I’m over 50 now so I’m not doing it anymore. I’m out. I hope you’ll join me. 50 Things a 50-Year-Old Woman Should No Longer Care About Laugh lines. Happiness and joy put them there. Leave them alone. Or get Botox. Lines…

The R-A-I-N Technique: Recognize/Relax, Accept/Allow, Investigate and Note — I am not a doctor or mental health professional, but I know about anxiety, panic attacks, anti-anxiety drugs and therapy. I’ve suffered from a debilitating fear of flying and anxiety that eventually oozed into every area of my life. …

How I faced my debilitating fear of flying, that grew into a fear of elevators, cars, ALL closed-in spaces, etc., etc. — In the 1987 thriller Fatal Attraction, a married man has a fling with a woman who he dumps. She becomes singularly obsessed with him. …

Get out of your head and think about something bigger than yourself — Instead of actually writing, I have taken a well-worn procrastination detour into contemplation of my Why. Why write Medium articles? Does it really matter? Do I have anything worthwhile to say? Why am I reading 60 articles about writing on Medium, instead of just writing on Medium? Motivation can be…

Why are books about people that don’t look like you threatening? Listen to the audio version here. This is dedicated to the (hopefully) small sub-set of parents screaming at school board meetings that the current version of U.S. …

Resilience, patience and self-reliance one tile at a time — I don’t like Scrabble. Who wants to think during leisure time? Give me Go Fish or Candy Land any day. But Scrabble? Make up words without the necessary letters? Unravel the confusing scoring system? Sit in silence while smarter people spell words with Q’s but no U’s? …