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Last week, my friend Katie declared that she was practicing a new script: “I don’t have to be perfect.” YES! YES YES YES!!! I was driving the car when she said it, but I nearly jumped out of my seat. Of course not! Of course you don’t have to be perfect! And yet… I often…

Sometimes, students ask me questions with pained looks on their faces: Do you think I should take this job? Do you think I should go to graduate school? Do you think I need to join this club so it looks good on my resume? From one look at them, I know the answer: No. Absolutely…

We were on the ground in a kneeling lunge in yoga class when our teacher told us to twist to the right and see if we could send one arm below our leg and one behind our back to bind the pose by clasping our hands together: a bound revolved kneeling lunge. I threaded my…

My massage therapist held my head in his hands at the end of the massage, and, in a gentle whispery voice, he said he hoped that the session had been beneficial to me. “Yes,” I said, “Thank you so much.” He replied, “Thank yourself.” I laughed. Thank yourself. You know what? He’s right. Amen to…

The hair on Blue’s back rises; her Australian Shepherd skeleton lowers as she stalks the man of straw.   Crunchy carrot nose, brittle wheaty smile, he was born from waving fields to stand still and wait silent.   It is Thanksgiving.   In my neighborhood: Branches shaped into deer, pine cones circling into wreaths, men…

During the second round of speeches in my class, several students hesitated or stumbled on their words and, if they happened to look out at me, I was smiling. I didn’t smile because they were making a mistake, I smiled because I knew they would get past it. I smiled because I knew they were…

Halloween has come and gone, and my neighbors are putting away their dancing skeletons and digging up the skeletal hands that were poking through the ground to grab us. All these skeletons are campy and fun, but sometimes I forget that I have my very own skeleton, and I walk it around every day. It’s…

Recently, my friend introduced me to a new colleague who likes to go hiking. The new guy asked me, “Oh, have you been up Grandeur Peak?” “Yes,” I said, “That’s a good one.” Then he said, to my surprise, “How long does it take you to get to the top?” My first inclination (which I…

I ran into a high level administrator at my job in the parking garage. He was eating a giant cookie. I don’t know him very well. He decides on my salary and he makes the rules and when I get around him, I get weird. “Hello!” I said, VERY brightly. “Hello,” he said, eating the…

Sometimes you come home from a trip full of fun experiences and interesting insights to share and you walk through your front door and then you realize that no one is home and it is silent and the hydrangeas on your kitchen counter have died and your dog isn’t there right now wagging her tail…