The Real Work

I just finished an unpleasant task during which I aggressively ignored every piece of advice I have ever given my children about the completion of unpleasant tasks. Continue Reading

Just two weeks. It’s so bad it’s surreal.

If you’re panicking, I get it. So the real work now, at least in part, is to find ways not to go there—and to get out fast when we do.

So what do we do?

1. Breathe. My children hate it when they are out of their minds with rage or worry and I remind them to breathe. But when we bring our minds to our breath, we bring ourselves into the present moment—which, except for those of us being detained at airports or waiting anxiously for someone who is—is not where our worries are actually happening, not yet at least. Worries usually rehash a past that is finished and can’t be changed, or tell scary stories about the future; when we get lost there we are gone to the present moment—the only place we can actually do anything. Mark Twain is said to have quipped: “I’ve lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” Continue Reading

I didn’t think it would happen. I believed the American people were too decent: that when presented with lies, hate and ignorance on such a breathtaking scale, they would swallow any political qualms and do what it took to keep that man and his frightening instability out of the White House.

It’s taken me these two months plus just to crawl most of the way out of shock and denial. Continue Reading