The Dining Room Table
Over the recent holiday weekend, four generations of my family – from 9 months+ to 91 years+ – came together. we had time together to walk, talk, swim, cook, and just generally hang out and connect. At our family beach house, people pretty much do their own thing until dinner
Girlfriends
My mom attended the memorial service for her lifelong friend, Pat Munz, this week. She and Pat had known each other for over sixty years. They raised their kids together. They called each other when the Entenmann’s Day Old Store had a two-for-one sale. They coordinated car-pools and watched each
To Love
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. It is a day devoted to love – that magical mix of emotion, psychology, physiology, and pixie dust. Poems. Songs. Biographies. Novels. Films… Love features prominently in every form of storytelling. Love resides at the core of human connection, healing, hope, and meaning.
A Year of COVID by Broadway
Exactly one year ago, I picked up my daughter from her university apartment in Baltimore to drive to NYC, pick up her twin brother, and depart the city to wait out the passing of the novel coronavirus. Exactly one year ago, Broadway went dark for what was to be a
Heart Health & Mental Health
This Sunday is Valentine’s Day, and Valentine’s Day is all about love, cupid and fluttering hearts. All year long, another story about our hearts is taking place – the story of heart health and mental health. While mental illness is the leading cause of disability worldwide, heart disease is the
Difficult Conversations
The news headlines have been unrelenting sirens about the challenges of our time. Global pandemic. Variant strains. Vaccine distribution failures. Political mayhem. Unemployment and economic upheaval. Racial injustice. Social unrest. I am finding that these huge social stressors have crossed the blood-brain barrier so to speak and are now part
Hugs
2021 is here. It’s been a rocky start. Expletives of dismay, exasperation, despair, disgust, and fear fill the airwaves of personal conversations, social media posts, newspaper articles and televised broadcasts. Surely there will be thoughtful and important analyses of the vaccine’s slow and fragmented rollout, the new strain of the
Longing
About this time of year, many moons ago, I tiptoed out of my apartment in the dark of night to leave the urban sprawl of Tokyo on a quest. I was answering the beckoning call of Mt. Fuji. This iconic and majestic mountain rises 3776 meters above sea level and
World Mental Health Day 2020
Tomorrow, October 10th, is World Mental Health Day. Initiated in 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health, World Mental Health Day creates awareness about mental health and mental illness. The theme this year is Mental Health for All: Greater Investment – Greater Access. Of course, mental health matters every
Lose Hope, Game Over
Lose hope. Game over. The words of a dear friend ring in my ears these days. But it’s hard to stay hopeful. Just when it seems like things cannot get worse, they do. The US Presidential debate was a spectacle and a debacle. I have texts from friends who live
Shanah Tovah!
This evening’s setting sun ushers in Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It marks the beginning of the High Holy Days for Jews around the world, which continue for 10 days and culminate on Yom Kippur. Today is my first Five on Friday following two weeks of vacation. As I
The Rabbit Effect
What do rabbits have to do with mental health? In her recent book, The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness, Columbia psychiatrist Dr. Kelli Harding makes the connection quite clearly. We were fortunate to have Kelli join us for a Zoom discussion of
