With a Full Heart

In my professional life, I have had the extraordinary good fortune to work with amazing people. I don’t know if it is because we work in healthcare and these special folks are drawn to this work or that I have just been blessed, but I know that it is true. Oh, don’t get me wrong.…

I’m finishing my birthday week, although my husband would tell you I extend my birthday for the entire month. That maybe, indeed, be close to the truth but why should a birthday be confined to a single day? The reality is that I am not overly thrilled about birthdays. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I…

As a parent, there have been so many times that I have wished that I could take my child’s place in a difficult situation. The first time I really remember thinking that was watching as one of my sons got on the school bus for the first time. He was new to this school, going…

I have labeled myself a “motherless daughter” for more years than I care to count. Losing my mother at 25 has shaped my life in so many ways, longing still for her presence, the warmth of her arms around me, the chance to ask a question or share my feelings, the wish that my children…

As I write this, I am looking out at the beach in Tel Aviv. It was not easy to make that happen. Flights that had been confirmed for weeks were cancelled at the last minute and I didn’t really know for certain that we would get here until we landed at Ben Gurion Airport. When…

I am well aware that I am not possessed of a great deal of physical courage. It’s unlikely that you would ever find me swinging from a bungee cord or climbing Mount Everest. In fact, in one notable example, I had booked both my husband and myself for a Jules Verne “Under the Sea” experience…

It is so easy to focus on that which bothers us, the things that keep us up in the middle of the night, the worries and anxieties, those things we wish had gone differently. We fret, we perseverate, we recycle every negative moment until there ought to be nothing left of it and then we…

What would you do if you were not afraid? What would you do if you truly believed in yourself so fully that you were not at all concerned about the opinions and judgments of others? We spend so much, or maybe we waste so much, time in our lives questioning ourselves and wondering what others…

The middle of the night is my favorite time to obsess. I can worry obsessively about people, situations, moments. I can dwell on words that were said, or interactions that took place, that upset me. I can linger endlessly over something I did or said that I wished I hadn’t or fret about someone else’s…

As a leader, we have the opportunity to help individuals learn and grow, connect and thrive. It is, in fact, more than an opportunity. It’s an obligation. A long ago former boss of mine said that he’d learned a lesson early in his career. He said, only slightly tongue in cheek, that at a point…