Try this If you aren’t up to/don’t-want-to pay for a Thanksgiving spread, or you plan to celebrate on your own time — tomorrow, or whenever it works — you may be looking for a last minute plan. Ideas: Turkey sandwich with all the fixings from a grocery store deli. Whole…

Finding strength in weakness — After I crumpled to the airplane floor, I tried to take off my Christmas velvets. Flight attendants don’t like for female passengers to strip off their shirts or skirts, so they turned me over and poured bottled water on my head and face, and then they helped me up. So…

and what I’m not — They call it acceptance and self-acceptance is hard to grasp. When the calendar flips through enough years, a time comes when you throw up your hands and you say to yourself, “You know what? This is what I can do. No more and no less. This is me. It doesn’t…

Success is at hand — Successful business writers know their job is to make the boss sound smart. It’s really just as simple as that. Whether your audience is a smattering of longtime employees or a multitude of new and dynamic clients, the men and women at the helm must come across in print as…

Even if it’s not in style — “The world is so full of a number of things I’m sure we all should be happy as kings.” Robert Louis Stevenson said that before I did. He beat me to it by a mile, and more than 100 years. I agree with his every word. …

Find yourself in Gershwin and Chagall — The music and paintings are about YOU, and me, and that thing called humanity. Light from a power so much bigger than ourselves shines out of the Arts. It cuts through the darkness of our lonely souls, and shakes the sleepy awake. Big words, but they’re true. I’ll stop playing the grand piano now, but it’s necessary when standing in the light of genius…

Listen for dead poets to chime in — A Box to Hide in Did you ever need a box to hide in? Well, I did. Just for a little while I don’t want to stay there forever Until the world quiets down would be nice. Until the news makes sense And kids can be kids And grownups remember how to behave. I could…

Ways to lead yourself through the night — hope, optimism, perspective — When the difference between expectation and realization equals disappointment — jump into a book to find solace Good literature is all about you, and me. It’s about the condition of being human, which includes disappointment. So pull a cloak of literature around you and rest. Literary characters experience life’s pains as sharply as we do, and they come out on the other side. Favorite authors can be…

A story of everlasting love — Ghosts, romance, death, life lessons — Augie and Miss Lillian painted their house PINK like a showgirl’s smile. It was a warm and glorious shade. It was the color the gods splash across the horizon just before they let the sun slip out of the sky for the night. — From Sirena’s journal I was stunned…