What’s your word for 2024?

Do you have one?

We need some positive energy out there, people!

Did you realize we have an election coming in the U.S.? War is going on in several places in the world. Global temperatures are rising. Inequities and gaps are growing. Our world needs some fresh and lively energy.

What a week.

All I can say is, “Wow.”

The new year came with a lot of loss.

Grief.

Wounds that won’t be healed easily—if ever.

Last week, I went into a boutique looking for a new pair of jeans.

I had been in the shop many, many times before to buy a pair of earrings or a gift for a friend. But I usually steered away from their jeans because I’m short and chunky and most pants are too skinny or too long off a shelf.

I went for a facial a few days ago. 

The esthetician at the salon asked what kind I wanted. Anti-aging? Hydrating? Detoxifying? Lifting? In other words, what package could she offer in a valiant effort to connect my skin to what it used to be?

Remember Footloose?

I loved that movie.

It was everything the ’80s was about. 

Ren—otherwise known as Kevin Bacon—moved to a tiny southwest town with his mom.

Growing boys is like growing mangoes.

That’s what my Uber driver told me, anyway.

I was dying to hear more.

His name was Tanveer, and he grew up in India, one of the places where mangoes originated.

If you ever have a chance to feed a giraffe, say yes.

I just did this at a zoo in Florida.

When I saw the sign that you could feed a giraffe for $5, I said jokingly to my adult son, “Want to feed the giraffes?”

Leave it.

One of my coaching clients shared that this was her theme for herself this week.

Rather than obsess, perseverate, or allow a wayward thought to cycle again and again through her head, she told herself, Leave it!

My tennis elbow is back.

I am having trouble opening jars. Pulling my suitcase out of the overhead bin. Shaking someone’s hand. 

My heart’s hurting.

These days, no one has to ask why.

It’s what’s happening in Israel and Gaza. Ukraine. Other war-torn areas of the world. The divisive injustices against living, breathing human beings. The loss of life.

Dear Mom,

I wish you were here.

You could hem my pants.

I say this not because there’s no one else to do it, but because we’d laugh about how hemming is not a skill that I possess.

Consider someone from your life—present or past—who you do not trust.

Write their initials on a Post-it.

Colleagues and I did this exercise last week with Cory Scheer. He frequently speaks to organizations on this topic of trust.

If anyone had told me having a kid would be like wearing my heart outside my body….

I read this in an essay once.

If anyone had told me that birthing another human being would become the ultimate lesson in powerlessness and lack of control….

What? Would I have avoided it?

When I try to make sense of these times, I don’t get very far.

How about you?

A study conducted in my state of 9,500 people, including parents, teachers, and community members, showed high anxiety: 73 percent of parents said their child is as anxious or more anxious than the year before.

I bought some highly priced popcorn from a stand outside of Lowe’s recently.

I recognized the tan uniforms right away.

Boy Scouts! The same uniform my brother wore 40 years ago.

We visited some friends in Florida recently, and they took us out on their boat on the St. Lucie River.

It was a Saturday—the Stuart sandbar was full of sunshine and clusters of people chilling in hip-waist water under beach umbrellas, laughing, and chatting.

My friend Annie asks her kids to send her “Proof of Fun.” 

She came up with this trick to get her teenaged daughters to stay in touch. When they are out with friends, she asks them to snap photos of what they are doing. And all they need to do is text her a photo or two now and then.

My son just moved 1,500 miles away from me.

1,500 miles!

Away from me!

My only son.

Doggonit.

We will periodically tear the fabric of the relationship we are in.

Michael Bungay Stanier, author and coach, said this on a podcast recently. He stressed how we have to work at relationships to keep them healthy. In fact, his new book, How to Work with (Almost) Anyone is all about this.

Shhh…

Country Mouse, do you hear that?

The quiet rustling leaves of a quaking aspen? The bubbling of the mountain stream? The slow, liquid trill of the swamp sparrow? The evening peepers’ song by the pond?

Or…are you a City Mouse?