The Astonishing Truth About Your Potential

As my boys have grown up, they have often plied me with pleading questions such as,

"Can I have an iphone?" Followed by the refrain,

"Everyone has one."


When I have questioned my kids  as to  who "Everyone" is and suggested calling round to find out, it is often only one or two friends and not the whole grade, that they are thinking about.

At times, we have all been influenced by peers, school expectations, the media and familial relationships and dynamics, for good and for bad.


As we get into our teens and young adulthood, the social perception of what "Everyone" thinks can take on larger than life proportions that can influence us positively or negatively.


The critical voices in our heads may have great bearing on our decisions. Our self-perception can be altered, according to how much store we have set by how we think others perceive us. 

What Would You Do if You Knew You Could Not Fail?

This photo is mine. Please ask before copying

Well ........What WOULD you do if you knew you could not fail? 

Sometimes the challenges and changes we are faced with seem insurmountable. We want to do something new or change our lives in some way.

But we feel very small in the face of much larger egos, obstacles and organizations. These feelings of being unable to take on the giant, looming large, can stop us in our tracks, root us to the spot and paralyze our thinking and behavior.

Beach Break -Tales and Tips

Jonny and I are at the beach. It is a cloudless day and we are sitting side by side in low slung beach chairs. We have some shade from an oversized umbrella and our feet are partially buried in the white, clean sand. The sun is bathing us in its warmth and we are watching the waves tumble onto the shore as the Sandpipers hop away from the foamy puddles just in time.

If you feel as though you have read this before, you would be right.

The Power of Passion

  This past weekend our middle son Aron received his EMT certification. An EMT is an Emergency Medical Technician who works on an ambulance and fire truck.  It is a process that began eleven months ago, when Aron joined the Rockville Volunteer  Fire Department.  He has volunteered at the fire station and on the ambulance  every Wednesday night after school until 11.00pm, juggling 11th grade schoolwork and his father’s illness and brain surgery.  He has  gone on  emergency calls from 5.00pm until 7.00am the next day, on Saturday nights and during  school breaks. He has attended calls to attempted suicide victims, car crashes and sick infants, fall and  stroke victims and a pregnant woman whose  water had broken. On top of that time commitment, he has also  completed 131 hours of classroom  training and 12 exams  to become a state of Maryland certified EMT.

In this age of helicopter parenting and being connected to our children 24/7 via phone, text, email and Facebook,  it came as quite  a shock to us, to wave Aron off,at the age of 16  into the belly of the local fire station.