My Halloween costume in 2024 honored San, the heroine of “Princess Mononoke.” While she is flawed and biased, she is passionate and driven, and no one can deny her strength. But the concept of “strong” female characters raises many questions about what that word means and how it is portrayed in popular culture. Director Hayao Miyazaki has a perspective more grounded in reality than most.
2024 was hard, and thinking about resolutions at a time when I’m simply trying to hold myself together seems pointless. This year I intend to focus on building strategies for resilience instead of trying to make myself a “better person.” I hope I can succeed at achieving some level of self care – and that my actions can inspire others to do the same.
We use machines to make our lives easier, but we are not making use of the time we save in a meaningful way. Omnipresent AI tools in our daily lives are contributing to our reduced capacity for long attention spans, research and curiosity, critical thinking, and creativity. We’re relinquishing some of the things that make us human, and it’s not AI’s fault; it’s ours.
The hateful phrase “good enough” always feels like a cop-out to someone who strives for perfection in all aspects of her life, but I’m learning to live with it during what has been a very difficult year. Knowing I wouldn’t achieve a perfect Thanksgiving dinner, even if I tried, my goal shifted to something far more important: spending time with my dad.
Gardening teaches patience, persistence, and flexibility. The “Capital G” Garden will never be done, since it is in a constant state of becoming, but necessary tasks just haven’t gotten done during what has been a busy and challenging year. I did what I could to at least spend some time enjoying my happy place – and I hope you can too through this post.
With days left to go until the election and the eyes of the world on Pennsylvania, I’m looking for ways to bridge the political divide no matter what the outcome is. Reaching across the aisle is not popular and can be a scary prospect, but there are steps we can take to disagree better and find that we have more in common than we think.
Finding common ground is easier said than done, especially during election season. With one week to go until Election Day, this post examines the concept that a majority of Americans are actually quiet or uninvolved entirely in politics, possibly driven away by exhausting hyper-partisan rhetoric. For those of us interested in attacking positions, not people, there are some resources available to help make that happen.
As this post goes live, we’re nearly three weeks out from Election Day in the United States, with critical races happening up and down the ballot. I always hesitate to tell people how to cast their votes, and at a time when we are more polarized than ever, that approach wouldn’t do much good anyway. But there could be a better way to mend division.
Good, challenging travel teaches you about yourself, and I seem to have learned more about myself in Fiji than I did about Fiji. My introspective blog series does not begin to do justice to this beautiful country, but I am grateful that I had the opportunity to explore some of my growth edges against such an amazing backdrop.
I try to avoid touristy places when I travel, conveniently ignoring the fact that I am a tourist myself. In this post I wrestle with some external judgment related to how people “should” travel, including whether they should even travel in the first place. Seeking comfort (in addition to challenge) when I was in Fiji helped me realize there’s no clear black-and-white answer here.