A Letter That Changed my Life? (Woman's Day)

Seven years ago, while volunteering in Kenya with the Red Cross, I met a 15-year-old boy named Julius who deeply touched my heart. He showed me around his village of shacks with no running water or electricity, excitedly explaining his dreams of becoming a teacher and maybe even a journalist someday. What struck me wasn’t the poverty he lived in, but the richness of his heart...Read entire article

Treasures That Can't be Stolen (Beliefnet.com)
A few months ago, I was on a business trip and checked my cell phone for messages in between my morning and afternoon meetings. There was one message, the one you never want to hear: “Honey, it’s me,” said my husband Eric, trying to sound nonchalant and doing a horrible job. “Call me as soon as you can. It’s important.”

     It’s important. Those words rang in my head as I dashed off to my next meeting, no time to call Eric back until hours later. By that time, I was panicked with the possibilities. ”What’s wrong? Is someone hurt? Are the boys OK?” I fired into the phone when Eric picked up. When he told me we’d been robbed, a wave of relief flooded through me. As I walked back to my hotel that evening, I gave thanks that everything with real value to me was still waiting for me at home...Read entire article

My Gardening Mentor (The Seattle Times, Sunday Magazine)
I have a love-hate relationship with gardening. I love those Zen moments when I'm digging in the dirt among eye-popping colors and sensual smells, working side-by-side with the bees, beetles and earthworms. But too often, I find myself sweating and grunting as I'm whacking weeds, chiseling clay and wondering why the azaleas I planted last year are besieged with brown spots...Read entire article

No Magic Bullet for Depression (Better Nutrition)
For years, I ping-ponged back and forth between more than a dozen antidepressants. If I could only find the right medicine, I thought, my life would change. The heaviness would lift. The emptiness would be filled. The joy of living would return. For nearly a decade, I desperately looked for a magic bullet.Each pill numbed the emptiness in varying degrees, and each had its own special side effects—from the merely annoying dry throat and foggy head to horrendous jitters, nausea and loss of sexual desire. But, hey, better than depression, right?...Contact me for entire article

Keeping the Faith (Writer Unboxed)

I often write — and talk, and think — about finding faith beyond religion, in everyday life and the worlds that we create as writers. Five years ago I took a leap of faith and went to Rwanda. My excuse was a magazine assignment, but I was privately propelled by a quest to find—and to feel—something more...Read entire article

Writing Rituals: Spiritual or Simply Habit? (Psychology Today)

This is a season of rituals: lighting Hanukkah candles and Christmas trees, wishing on stars, and promising to do better in the coming year. It's not really what you do, but the spirit of renewing hope that is so powerful. It's the same with writing fiction. Each morning before I turn on my laptop, I take a walk in the woods with my dog. Then, I light a candle to burn away resistance and give a nod to my little one-armed Buddha (imperfect and smiling)...Read entire article