My daughter and I had a great summer. Don’t get me wrong, we have a good relationship and are quite close as I have raised her mainly by myself these past twenty odd years. But there are always stumbling blocks in any relationship, and none can be more tangled than parent and child. Why? Because...
Read MoreIn Costco, I spotted a dad on bended knee. He held up two beautiful costume options: “Do you want to be a mermaid or Wonder Woman?”
His daughter, probably 4 years old, stared at her options. Meanwhile, the son’s Captain America gear was already in the cart.
“I’ll be both,” said the daughter.
Read MoreI pulled up to the first window and proudly handed over my coupon—the catalyst to my entire visit—and paid. In the back of my brain, I felt like I was missing something, but I whizzed forward anyway. I flew right past that second window...
Read MoreI’m in the water, swimming laps at the pool. Puffing away. I feel pretty good about myself. Pull. Pull. Pull. Breathe. Repeat and flip turn. In the zone, I don’t worry about much else. It’s rhythmic. My swimming sanctuary. Back and forth.
Read MoreShopping with my Aunt, I stepped into the dressing room. The wall had “yes”, “no” and “maybe” written in black script. It didn’t even take me a moment to realize the power. I instantly saw the small significance; there was no hook to hang “maybe.”
Read MoreWaves crashed the shoreline. The sun sayonara-ed with gold, pink and orange. A small pack of people scurried on the beach, laying down a blanket and lighting candles in luminary bags. We were not sure what they were doing, but it looked important...
Read MoreA moment on the radio: A guy “pulls out all the stops” for his date and can’t figure out what went wrong. He explains: “I wanted to make a great first impression and really treat her ‘right’ like a true gentleman. I gave her flowers, took her to the best restaurant...
Read MoreDowntown, under the shadow of the skyscrapers, a man walked towards me. I was 70% sure he was going to ask me for money—he had a look of desperation.
“How ya doing?” he called out.
Read MoreCruise goal #1: Connect with crew. For the first time ever, I cruised as a passenger. I worked for Carnival out of college and never sailed as a guest. While on board, I made a special friend and he shared his daily schedule:
“Around 3 O’clock, I take in a coffee.” His words stuck with me. In Spanish, people say “Tomar el café”, or “take in” coffee. Also, contextual to a cruise, “to sunbathe” uses the same verb with “tomar sol.” Apparently, French and Hindi have similar translations: a more purposeful “taking in” of sorts.
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