(THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM ‘THE BOOK OF MOODS’) In 1963, Elizabeth Taylor had just ended her fourth marriage and was starring in Cleopatra with the currently married Richard Burton. Within a year, the two were married at the Ritz in Montreal and their fame from Cleopatra, coupled with the drama of their private lives, […]
Motherhood. The word sails through my mind at random yet with increasing persistence. Maybe because I’m getting closer to that age. Maybe because it’s around me more. Maybe because this is how it happens. A word enters the brain, slowly, over time, becoming a thought, that thought then nestling into the body, unconsciously or consciously […]
Last week I noticed a new thing that’s been happening to me. I’m not sure when it started (a year ago? Six months ago? Twelve years ago?) but last week I officially NOTED it. It’s not depression. More like emotional combustion. Like rage and sadness and disappointment and anxiety merged into one. A tension created […]
Dr. Maria Montessori is a name that bears familiarity but little knowledge. While her last name is ascribed to the term universally associated with early education, we know little to nothing about the woman who holds it. Born in 1870, Dr. Maria Montessori graduated from the University of Rome with a degree in medicine. She […]
Worrying is an active pastime of mine. One of my favorite hobbies is to go through all the possibilities of things that could go wrong, things that have gone wrong, and embarrassing things I’ve done. I know it’s creating stress – I can actually see new lines forming on my forehead. But I just can’t […]
The True Mirror is the world’s first seamless, non-reversing mirror. Invented by John and Catherine Walters, they discovered that if you take two mirrors and you put them together at right angles and take away the seam, the images bounce off each other and for the first time you see your true reflection; you see […]
How do you respond to stress? What’s your mode of response? Do you lash out? Do you withdrawal? Do you latch onto people? If you find yourself responding in the same toxic way every time, it means you’re living through the ego, and by understanding your own personality type, you can correct your responses to […]
One of my favorite literary concepts is “Kill Your Darlings”. I discovered it after attending a ‘Kill Your Darlings” party in Bushwick — an open mic in which writers read aloud their favorites lines or passages they had to kill for the greater good of their story. William Faulkner coined the phrase when he said, […]