Exploring one of life's most valuable gifts
Zoom calls, group chats and emails are hugely helpful when you are missing your friends in faraway places. They certainly provide faster and more complete forms of staying in touch than what we had in the old days, when audio calls or snail mail were our only methods of communication with geographically dispersed friends. We’ve... Continue Reading →
Moving to a new city is never easy, especially when it involves long distance. Leaving behind friends and familiar surroundings can trigger heavy feelings of loss, and navigating the magnitude of change involved with a relocation can be difficult for anyone. Yet, I have watched one of my longtime friends gracefully manage big moves multiple... Continue Reading →
One of my favorite holiday traditions in Chicago is visiting the Christmas Around the World and Holiday of Lights exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. When my boys were young, we’d bring them to see the dozens of Christmas trees decorated to represent cultures around the world. While we loved seeing all of the trees, we’d... Continue Reading →
Can you consider a person you’ve never met to be a friend? I love to read memoirs, and I’ve encountered authors over the years who write in a way that makes me feel like I know them. At times, their words and experiences have resonated with me so deeply that I almost feel they could... Continue Reading →
Growing up, I was an ardent baseball fan. My mom’s family were diehard Red Sox fans and my dad followed the Chicago Cubs. So, when it was time to trade in my Cubs bleacher seats for folding chairs at Little League games, I was ready. My younger son Will discovered a passion for playing baseball... Continue Reading →
Last summer we wrote about a return to post-Covid travel and how pent-up demand led to new highs in travel bookings around the globe. It also led to spikes in travel costs, a big reason why my family decided to trade in our annual week on Cape Cod for a long weekend near the Blue... Continue Reading →
Today is Global Beatles Day, which was established in 2009 to honor and celebrate the impact of one of the most transformational music groups of all time. Sometimes known as the Fab 4, this talented group of young men from England took the world by storm in the 1960s and their legacy continues to thrive.... Continue Reading →
Lately I’ve been experiencing an emotion I was introduced to early last year when I read about it in famed vulnerability researcher Brene Brown’s helpful book, Atlas of the Heart, which Julia and I both wrote about in separate posts. The emotion is called Freudenfreude, and it’s a mouthful, but really it’s just the feeling... Continue Reading →
April is one of my favorite months. While March signals the start of Spring, it’s April when flowers start reliably blooming, even for those of us living in the Northern parts of the United States. The days are getting longer, and it’s hard not to be optimistic when warmer weather awaits. Even the name ‘April’... Continue Reading →
Guest post alert: This week, my sister Liz Witherspoon shares memories of a friendship between our mom and uncle that has inspired the next generation of cousins to form tight bonds of their own. As the wheels touch down in Buenos Aires, my phone pings with Whatsapp pictures and messages from my cousins and sister... Continue Reading →
Language of Friendship 