Take Back Your Life!

Men write 75% of op-ed columns. For some reason, women have not broken through this journalistic glass ceiling. Op-eds require a strong writing voice. That may scare or turn some women off. It also requires a tough skin. Op-ed writers can get hammered by readers in the comment sections. Negative comments tend to be more forthcoming than positive ones.

I’ve learned to let these comments fuel my passion to write even more wild and disobedient op-eds.

Honestly, it’s my favorite type of writing. I get to unleash my voice. I get to be bold. I get to be sassy. I get to use my Nancy Drew investigative skills. I get to pull disparate thoughts together into something new. To me, it’s a labor of creative love. (more…)

So many of us feel powerless over the economy because we’ve given that power away without fully realizing it. Without a Main Street economy we become the pawns of giant corporations and the governments that make them possible.

The start of the economic demise appears to have started back in the late 70’s with the advent of discount stores. Prior to that, they were few and far between. My mother refused to set foot in those stores. Then we got suckered into buying things for less and it became a part of our societal makeup. (I know folks that drive two hours to NH to save $10.)  (more…)

Hello rebellious readers,

Got our first human guest post (Valentino the cat was technically the first guest post) from Farouk Radwan. I commented on one of his guests posts on another blog and he visited my site and asked if he could write one for me on Solving Your Life Problems.

The topic intrigued me because we tend to complain endlessly about our problems, but take little action to rectify them.

Let’s give Farouk a warm, disobedient welcome!

Imagine you had the ability to solve each life problem you face.

You’d be happier and more self confident, right? (more…)

Somewhere along the childhood line I started to lie when confronted about “doing” something. I believe it stemmed from being punished when I admitted to fairly minor household transgressions like eating the cake or tracking mud into the house. Like any kid I started to put two and two together and realized I came up with punishment 10. Unfortunately, this behavior followed me into life beyond childhood. (more…)

Hello wonderful folks!

Seasoned Earth visitors have much to teach us younger folks. A few years ago, I went to a relative’s wake. After expressing my sympathies to the family and catching up with some cousins, I took a seat next to an older gentleman with thick eyeglasses leaning forward onto his cane. I learned his name was Frank and we were connected through one of my aunts.

I asked Frank to tell me about his life. A proud son of Sicilian immigrants, he spoke glowingly of his parents’ birthplace, painting a picture for me of its beautiful mountains, vistas and architecture. We talked about his business, his children, his grandchildren and a forthcoming book his family had written to celebrate his life. (more…)

Hey alive folks!

I’ve begun writing an essay on wind – how it’s influenced my life, how it carries parts of us to other places and brings parts of others to us, how I tend to fight it when it might be better to go with it. The topic of wind made me think of this awesome Jimi Hendrix song: The Wind Cries Mary.

Will the wind ever remember
The names it has blown in the past
And with his crutch, it’s old age, and it’s wisdom

(more…)

Hey rebellious ones!

It’s perseverance.

When I set my sights on something, I take a personal vow not to give up. 99% of the time, whatever I want to happen does indeed happen. But only because I didn’t give up. I didn’t give in to that human tendency to “run back to mommy” at the slightest bump in the road.

It wasn’t always that way. I used to throw up my hands in fake disgust and give up really easily. I gave up jobs and boyfriends and hobbies. I gave up living my best life. Looking back I can see that either I didn’t really want those things or I didn’t really want to fight for those things because I could have had them with a bit more determination and grit. True grit, that is. (more…)

Show Yourself Some Compassion

I’d like to give you the gift of self-compassion this holiday season. Most of us are way too hard on ourselves. We self-flagellate with whips of conformity & criticism. “You MUST do all of the societal ‘its’ or you’re a complete and utter failure,” we hear someone scream at us, only to realize we are the ones screaming. (more…)

Hey Rebellious Ones,

I want to introduce you to some courageous girl rebels at Girl Effect. It’s “normal” in developing countries to marry or sell young girls by the tender age of 12, who often die during childbirth. Unfortunately, girls are often seen as a financial liability to their families. (The underlying cultural problem.) We can get all mad about it and stomp our designer shoes over here, but it would be more effective to step up on our bare tippy toes to start the wave of change here we want to see over there.  (more…)

Hi folks!

I wonder if there’s a boredom epidemic out “there.”

Why? I see such little life enthusiasm. Yes, folks are busy, busy, busy running around, but do the activities shrouded in this busyness truly make them feel alive? And it’s not just the parents who are bored, the children seem to be bored as well. It all seems to be fueling a rise in depression among people of all ages. A January 2010 article in Psychology Today said that the mental health and happiness of children has been declining since the 1950’s. Even more interesting, people were less depressed during the Great Depression, World War II and the Cold War. The state of the world seems to have little to do with depression rates. (more…)