As summer winds down and my kids get ready to embark on a new year in school, new classes, new adventures and new growing and learning experiences, it brings me to examining my own life and what I’d like to do to renew and rejuvenate it. And with that, I came upon the topic of purpose. I…
The other day I was in the midst of digging deep into the minds of my characters, and with that, dug deeper into my own mind, my own soul. Love was the topic at hand one mid morning, mid-way into one of my scenes. I stopped for a second to reflect on such a common,…
There’s a fine line between what we want to do and what we have to do. As a writer, I’ve unconsciously been trying to avoid writing about a death in our family, and in turn, unable to come to the keyboard to work on my book or to post in this blog. I made a promise…
Is it possible to be an optimist and realist at the same time? If you’re too optimistic, does that mean that you’ve got your head in the clouds and your a dreamer? Where does optimism stop and “dreamer state” start? On the other side of the coin, can someone be too realistic? Does that mean…
Last week proved to be quite dramatic in our house, one marked by a constant reminder of how thin a line it is that we walk in all aspects of our lives. The most obvious drama we experienced was one revolving around Holy week and one in which the Christian calendar and Jewish calendar overlapped.…
Yesterday, I ran across my son’s infant cap hat that he wore home from the hospital. I stood there in front of the closet, staring at this tiny thing in the palm of my hand and took a deep breath. It’s all gone so fast. It feels like a week ago when we brought him…
Since I’ve had several people (okay, just about everyone) ask me for the meaning behind the Artichoke reference in the title of the blog, I shall explain: In my opinion, everything in life can be explained in terms of an artichoke. In the case of my title, the artichoke is referencing family (the Aristotle is…
On Monday, Lego Boy’s (our son) eye specialist confirmed that his vision disorder is now successfully corrected. This made me feel the need to reprint an article I wrote for Chicago Parent in November of ’07 (names are changed to protect the innocent) in order to spread the word about vision disorders. Through our experience,…
Launching my blog in February is significant to me, as I made a decision in February a few years ago to write a teen novel. (I’m using the term “few” loosely. The honest term is SEVERAL, since this marks year FOUR.) This week, I realized something about myself and my book project that could be…