The Realm of Regret

My husband has a phrase that makes sense when he is talking about finances, but sometimes he says it out of the blue. He will say, “I should have bought Amazon.” In 1997, like any academic, Dan purchased lots of books, but that year he began buying lots of books from Amazon. I remember when…

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Making Peace with My Inner Critic

For the first forty-some years of my life, my inner critic was always on duty. Experience taught me that if I recognized my mistakes and quickly course-corrected, I could avoid being called out or criticized. Any honest perfectionist will admit that it’s shameful when others notice our mistakes before we do. And since shame is…

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Famine and Plenty

“You know what I just realized?” I asked my friend. We were nearing the end of a wonderful day of good friends, good food, and great conversation. I was contemplating how content I was, how content I had been for a while.  “What did you just realize?” “This is the point in the semester where…

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