Category: change
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Nedotepa?
Rachel studies Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” in a college class in Barbara Scheiber’s book We’ll Go to Coney Island. The characters are “all so pitiful,” she tells her professor. “As if they—as if they’re asking to be hurt. They all seem to want to be happy, but they act, well, totally without any sense.” “But…
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What are your stories?
My friend Cody loves books and stories. “People can be transformed by a story,” Cody says. I agree. I have been transformed by the stories I have read and heard, fiction and nonfiction, about other people. Most important, I know the power of the stories I tell myself about myself and my history—and about what…
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The courage to change
Our good friends Eva and Mark just sold their house, sorted through their belongings and even got rid of dozens of books, packed everything and moved to Bellingham, Washington. We will miss them—even though we know that we will stay in touch and see them at least a couple of times a year. But we…
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Think big, but make small changes
Just a year ago, Sheryl Sandberg published a book called Lean In. Today, women in more than 14,000 Lean In Circles around the world meet regularly to help each other focus on their goals, says Lisa Bonos, an assistant editor at The Washington Post. Advising women to ‘lean in’ connotes small changes—a tilt here, a…
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A second chance
Today we’re living long lives—long enough to give most of us a second chance, explained Anna Quindlen, author of Still Life with Bread Crumbs, during a recent visit to Dallas. In her new book, Quindlen gives Rebecca, the main character, a second chance at success in her career and in love. As the book jacket…
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September—Osage County
When I heard the woman crying in the bathroom stall next to me, I remembered what I had read in one review of “August—Osage County.” The reviewer said the movie could be funny, but it might not be humorous at all to people who grew up in dysfunctional families. A few minutes later, as I…
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Are your ducks in the water?
Too many of us spend too much time thinking about how we are going to get our ducks in a row, says Jane Pauley, author of a new book Your Life Calling: Reimagining the Rest of Your Life. Sometimes doing something is more important than soul searching, Pauley explains. “Do you want your ducks in…
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Change comes slowly
I was the eager beaver at the beginning of January, ready to stick to my resolutions and make big changes this year. Beryl Markham, in her book West with the Night, reminds me that change comes slowly. “A word grows to a thought—a thought to an idea—and idea to an act,” Markham writes. “The change…
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Patience, please
My son, Jay, graduated and received his M.B.A. from the University of Tulsa on December 20. He already had had a number of job interviews, including three interviews with one large company. After that third interview, he was sure that he would get the job. He didn’t. He spent part of the holidays looking at…
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Why do we keep running?
Claudia, Faith’s daughter in the book Faith Bass Darling’s Last Garage Sale by Ann Rutledge, has been running for years from her parents, from her parents’ 19th-century mansion, from her past. Claudia “had begun to fail at everything—being tough, being buff, being young, even being a Buddhist, a practically impossible thing to do….You can only…