To avoid disappointment don’t lower your expectations; lengthen them. No one wants to be disappointed. And to prevent it some of us think it’s better to lower our expectations or, worse, kill them completely. But, that doesn’t work. Lowering your expectations is like giving up and it’s almost practically impossible to do. If you expect…More
Tag Archives: lifelesson
The Best Thing About Our Baby Having a Cleft Lip and Palate
Our son was born with a birth defect called a cleft lip and palate. This happens when the lip and roof of a baby’s mouth doesn’t fully close up in the womb creating a gap, thus the “cleft.” During almost all of the pregnancy, we went about our lives completely unaware of it. Finding About…More
This Perspective Helps You Live
Stories of death have been haunting me lately, helping me view the world, better. This week I read two posts about people I know who lost loved ones, not to the pandemic, but tragically nonetheless. One lost a young wife, and the other, a baby who was stillborn. And while my eyes pored over the…More
Finding Rest Right Now
We’re tired. Fighting a pandemic is exhausting. Even if you’re home alone or with kids or whatever, this is taking a lot more energy than we ever imagined it would. Who knew homeschooling was like herding cats and trying to teach them math. And then there’s the militaristic effort to sanitize everything—I mean everything—before it…More
This Is the Freedom You Can Hear
A choir of birds chirp outside my window each morning. And the melodies breathe a refreshing breeze into my soul that helps me face the day. It’s a simple sound, never ceasing to surprise and delight me, reminding me of something greater. Taking pleasure in the every-day moments, common yet majestic, can bring mirth even…More
Be More Unrealistic
“Let’s be realistic,” is a dream killing phrase, and I hate it. Don’t be realistic. Be foolish. Do that thing everyone says don’t do. Try that crazy idea that everyone says will fail. Go to that place everyone tells you not to go to. Failure is better than regret. With the former you learn. With…More
One Great Thing From Social Distancing
Strangers are waving at me, and I find myself waving back. They smile, and so do I. And you know what? It feels really good. In all of this we’re learning to appreciate strangers. There’s a longing for connection that we all have, especially when we’re as starved of it as we are these days.…More
The Greatest New Normal
Going to the grocery store looking like you’re about to rob the place or give someone an enema is the new normal. If you had told me two months ago that my family and I would be doing that and washing all of our food and packages before we put them away and sanitizing our…More
The frontlines of COVID-19—A love letter
To the nurses, EMTs, physicians, staff who are on the front line of this war, thank you for risking and sacrificing health, safety, comfort to ensure our health, safety, and comfort. You even sacrifice time with your family so we can be with ours. You are exposed so that we can be protected. You are…More
We could have been homeless—A story
It was the end of February, and I was scared. Something was going on in China. It was shrouded and strange but scary. People were getting sick, and many were dying, and it was growing at an alarming rate. I started to suspect that it was already in NYC. “I mean, how could it not…More
John Pa 