I finally found a Harriet Tubman book that I can bear to read. Every night just after 10pm I go to bed and read about her. No one, but no one affects me the way she does. I stare at photos of her and find it so hard to believe that she ever really lived. [...]

Everything changes for me in summer. The kids go off to travel the world, I go to the National Women’s Martial Arts Foundations annual rockin’ conference and then back East to summer where I was born.
This is all fine with me. It’s just those last few weeks of school that send me off my rocker. [...]

They came from another planet! A safety planet where cheerleaders become self defense trainers and female students become very dangerous to predators. In a 6 hour period one could hardly tell the difference between teacher and student – the mysterious morphing had begun. They learned from us – we learned from them. We negotiated, de-escalated, [...]

Paula Plessas is a miracle in my life. I love her, admire her, think she’s the real deal.
That’s all I want to say about Ms Plessas.

“Like others suddenly elevated to authority, all the bullying instincts in his nature rose to the surface.
It wasn’t that he was basically unkind, it was because he was so frightened and unsure of himself. He was harsh lest others learn his inadequacies and refuse his authority. Besides, there was some pleasure in shouting at people [...]

I’ve been talking up a storm about this curriculum I’m working on and I got such a wonderful new perspective on it today.
I was listening to NPR and there was a story about this government run program in Kenya to educate the children of semi-nomadic tribes people. They sent teachers out to the remote areas [...]

There is a wonderful article about marriage in the latest issue of Psychology Today. It’s called “The Expectation Trap.” Oh, please read this thing if you are in a relationship of almost any length. It has some insights into how we interact with our partners that I found interesting and helpful.
Lord knows, we’ve all [...]

I was just over at the grocery store and noticed a sign above the aisle pointing the way to the “Health Food” section – and it struck me…isn’t it so strange that it has to have a separate area?
A little aisle of nutritious sanity amid the rows and rows of what – edible food products? [...]

So a group heads over to Kenya with my husband to work in his microloan program in Korogocho slum. His companions are young, talented and passionate about the work.
This was me 4 years ago.
This was how the whole thing started really.
I was walking in the slums meeting recipients of the Manasseh’s Children micro finance [...]

Did you ever see Bode Miller ski a downhill race? One of the things about him is how exciting he is to watch. He’s absolutely on the edge of disaster at every moment. Just on the very brink of control.
I saw an interview with him the other day and he was asked why he [...]