I remember the long-ago ride so clearly. Jonni, my mom's friend and co-leader of our little hometown playgroup, picked us up and drove my mother and I to a little bakery in Hackensack. Because of that fact, I was able to have my birthday cake in time for my birthday party during an era when car breakdowns couldn't be mitigated financially and could prove fatal to any sort of celebration. Jonni at our Halloween party, early 80s. For some reason, I've remembered that ride my en

Pre-reading note: this post discusses loss of life to suicide. "Thank you."   I was a little bit startled by the man sitting in a chair behind me while I waited for my decaf at my favorite coffee shop. I don't get there often, it's almost 30 minutes from my house, but I find the amazing brew is worth the occasional trip.   I turned around and the man smiled wholeheartedly but somehow weakly at once. He looked pale and very tired, especially through the eyes. He was the sort o

It was my first truly big chance. I had just won a dream promotion. I was poised to build an internal communications department from the ground up in support of a non-profit mission I loved. My soon-to-be new boss, Beth W., gave me a transition-period first assignment: craft a message encouraging staff members to meet a simple compliance deadline. Coming from a background in journalism where the facts were the facts, I sent an email to the team with a list of folks who needed

I was getting it the hard way: ideas of perfection - at the holidays or otherwise - are meaningless. When push comes to shove, the only thing you'll really want is the people you love. Everything else is a store-bought illusion.

My God, grief sucks. That's my blunt Jersey girl's prayer - not unlike "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" I don't actually believe God - or however each of us manifests spirituality or even hope - forsakes us during times of grief. For me, in times of true pain, God is closer than ever gently holding me up in a way that means I can function while lost. My faith doesn't change my original tune, though: grief, in a word, sucks. I am fully aware that I have the privile

"Peace begins with me." There was something about both the simplicity and certainty with which my daughter's newly-minted 17-year-old friend uttered that phrase amidst a bustling birthday trip we took to NYC. Her words stopped me in my tracks. "How could she possibly know that so deeply already?" I wondered. The short answer, great kid, great friend, mature and wise well beyond her years (my daughter and her are lucky to know one another and benefit from mutual good-hearted t

Here's 3 easy steps to help busy executives get holiday internal communications right. Seasons greetings. Ramadaan Kareem. Happy holidays. Joyous Kwanzaa. Happy Chanukah. Happy Diwali. Merry Christmas. Shanah Tovah. Lunar New Year happiness. Genuinely saying the right thing at the right moment is a cornerstone of internal and executive communications. For leaders, a misstep around holiday time--or potentially even worse, omitting the acknowledgment of any particular milestone

If you love compassion, compassionate action can become your best asset, your super-power.

Then, almost by a miracle, on just the right day at just the right moment, when I was questioning just how to navigate, Deborah unwittingly gave me a sign. She found it in an old file she was cleaning out. Deborah found the now ancient worksheet that held my odd square.

I don't have time for this blog, but I'm resurrecting it anyway. It's taken me almost 50 years of living to realize that a great many of the things we think are most important aren't, and the things we woefully push to the margins when other duties call might just matter most: art, writing, music, or even the simple act of picking up an imperfect autumn leaf like a toddler and hanging it on the fridge as a reminder of crunchy fractured delight. You know very well the things I

Unforgettable I can still picture her -- a smiling woman with big glasses, a hearty quick laugh and seemingly constantly outstretched...

Seasons greetings. Ramadaan Kareem. Happy holidays. Joyous Kwanzaa. Happy Chanukah. Happy Diwali. Merry Christmas. Shanah Tovah. Lunar...

I am thirteen years old, and I am so proud: I have just gotten my first working papers. Each time it lands on my parents' front walk, I...

Every business website I visit seems to have two alerts at the top of the page: Our response to COVID-19 How we're supporting...

The best internal communications prompt teams to: Know: Many staff communications are simply informational. Convey facts in ways that are...

"I'm only human." That's a statement that a hard-driving, cerebral individual like me bristled at for years. The phrase, in my...