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Imagine having one of the most beautiful voices in the world, maybe in history, and one day losing it. Bam. Just like that. Gone.

That’s what happened to Julie Andrews nearly 30 years ago when a botched operation to fix a benign lesion on her vocal cords left her unable to sing.

What would YOU do?

Curl up in the fetal position? Go into a deep depression? Rage against the forces that took your greatest gift and stole your identity?

No doubt Dame Julie Andrews did all of those … [Read more...] about The Mantra That Saved Julie Andrews’ Life

I couldn’t believe the date when I looked it up last night. May of 2012. It’s been 14 years. Yet it’s still so clear in my mind.

I was driving home from Northbrook on a Sunday evening.

Alec Baldwin’s smooth voice was introducing Renee Fleming on his radio show, Here’s the Thing.

Baldwin has a way with introductions, and this one lives in my memory:
“Renee Fleming has a powerful effect on people. Conductor sir George Solti described the opera singer’s voice as double cream. Garrison … [Read more...] about Here’s to Great Beginnings

Patty and I recently chatted across her table on her back patio as she told me about being a female partner at a prestigious accounting firm in Chicago, and she had something on her mind.

Patty is very successful, especially for a woman in a male-dominated industry.

“Almost every industry is male-dominated,” she interjected, “so there’s really no need to make the distinction.”

Point taken.

Patty agreed to meet with me in person to answer my survey entitled “How to be an Amazing … [Read more...] about Do you know what esprit de l’escalier means?

(This is a special blog, based on the lay sermon I gave at my church on May 5, 2024 about the need for prison reform for older prisoners who are ineligible for parole in IL.)
Last Monday, my husband Bill and I drove to Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet. This maximum security prison is just a little less than 40 minutes from Elmhurst. After a quick stop through McDonald’s drive thru, we took 355 south and exited at Joliet Road.
As we got closer, I saw a water tower with Stateville … [Read more...] about Second Acts

When my dad died in 2019, we were flooded with condolences on Facebook. But there was one thing that permeated so many of them: a few lines of poetry that well-wishers included from various poems they had memorized in Dad’s high school English class, while proudly emphasizing, “I can still recite these lines today, thanks to Mr. Cloud.”
My dad insisted that his students memorize poems together as a class. He’d say: “Repeat after me. ‘Margaret are you grieving over golden grove unleaving?’”
No … [Read more...] about How To Memorize A Poem