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A short survival guide for grads
At commencement you wear your square-shaped mortarboards. My hope is that from time to time you will let your minds be bold, and wear sombreros.” ~Paul Freund Like most moms, I spent years lecturing my child on the importance of working hard, eating healthy meals, writing thank-you notes, and ironing his dress shirts. But I neglected to impart other nuggets of wisdom along the way. As my dad used to say, earning good grades is important, but learning how to get along with people is even more important. That’s why I wrote the following list of graduation “survival tips” and shared them in my local newspaper column before my son…
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Taking flight, growing strong
“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.” ~Pema Chodron Today’s quote spoke to me in several different ways. First, I thought of all the new college students who’ll soon be starting school — and how leaving the nest for the first time is such a milestone for our kids. The whole process involves facing change and challenges — and learning how to adapt. But Buddhist author Pema Chodron isn’t just referring to young people living on their own for the first time. She uses “the nest” as a metaphor for our comfort zone. No matter how old or young…
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School supplies for Mom
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way — things I had no words for.” ~Georgia O’Keeffe Shopping for brand-new supplies was a favorite back-to-school ritual when my son was a child. Is there anything more fun than browsing through aisles of colorful pens, markers, crayons, and notebooks? Even if you’re an empty nester, you can recapture the fresh thrill of back-to-school shopping — and maybe discover a new craft or hobby of your own. That’s the topic of my new Oakland Press column. You can read it in the Sunday print edition (August 14) or look for it online here.…
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Zen and the art of gardening
—Titled “The Art of Midlife Gardening,” this essay was originally published in Victoria magazine. Last spring, members of our local Master Gardener Society invited me to speak at one of their meetings. I was honored, at first, but as soon as the date of the talk rolled around, I started getting nervous. And with good reason. Master Gardeners aren’t just fooling around with bulbs and blossoms. These folks earn a minimum of 40 hours of instruction in horticulture science. Meeting for at least 11 weeks, they take classes in caring for indoor and outdoor plants, establishing lawns, growing vegetables and fruit trees, designing gardens, and more. I bow to their…
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Preparing for the empty nest: An essay about letting go
“It is not what you do for your children; it’s what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.” ~Ann Landers As I post this, a good friend is on the expressway, driving her only daughter to start her first week of college in another state. I’m reminded of an essay I wrote a few weeks later after I settled into my newly emptied nest. The piece was first published in Metro Parent magazine, and later republished in Guideposts. To read it online, click here. Today our son is a married man with a family of his own — yet the topic of launching our kids to adulthood…
