Category: Be Kind

I was at a Weight Watchers meeting this morning. Don’t ask. The wheels fall off the bus pretty quickly when you live in a family who loves to celebrate track meets, baseball games and good grades with ice cream. Easter baskets don’t seem to help the problem either.

Anyway, I was sitting in the meeting listening to the celebrations and challenges ... Read More


I didn’t think time travel was possible until I was sitting at a track meet the other night. It was my daughter’s very first meet. I thought it would be my very first meet too.

I was told ahead of time that it would be a test of endurance — not for the student athletes, but for their parents. In anticipation ... Read More


My friend who is a teacher showed me a very funny poster. It has pictures of two owls. One owl is looking wise and well-tailored in his round glasses and cap. The other owl looks like a deranged lunatic with a torn shirt and frayed feathers.

The caption on the poster says, “Teachers at the beginning of the school year” and ... Read More


How is it that things can look so drastically different based on our ever-changing outlook?

Like the little park bench that’s tucked along a pebble path and surrounded by colorful blossoms. It looks so quaint and inviting, until that becomes the place where your boyfriend chooses to dump you.

Then it looks rusty and worn out and covered in bird poop.

Some things ... Read More


A whole new language arises during the month of March in the house of a college basketball coach.

We use words like “seed” and “bracket” in daily conversation, but even more curious, in my house at least, is the way my husband begins to use the word, “March.”

In the midst of a tight game on TV, Saul will yell out things ... Read More


I am about to rat out my fellow columnist. In a good way, of course.

Bob Lind has been writing the Neighbors column in the Fargo Forum since before I was born.

Just kidding.

But he has been writing it for quite a while, right around 20 years in fact.

His words introduce us to the people, places and things that are right under ... Read More


A strange thing is happening. The kids are fed, the dishes are done (sort of) and the couch begins calling my name. Actually, it’s not the couch that’s drawing me in, it’s the television.

Ahhh, Netflix.

I’ve always admired the beauty of being able to watch what you want when you want it, but at the risk of sounding like an 80-year-old ... Read More


I went to visit my father recently. He had a stroke about 9 months ago and is now a permanent resident in an assisted living facility. He hasn’t yet regained the use of the right side of his body, so he relies heavily on my step-mom and his nurses to tend to his every need.

Every several months I have the ... Read More


Remember the old National Enquirer magazine commercials? “Inquiring minds want to know. I want to know.”

I talk about the health benefits of giving and how awkward situations can be smoothed out with kindness, but the more opportunities I have to speak in public and get immediate feedback from those messages, the more I realize I’m getting it wrong.

Well, maybe not ... Read More


My husband has banned me from Amazon. Not for shopping. For reading book reviews. Specifically, my book reviews.

I wrote a book and because it was about kindness, I assumed everyone would love it. So when someone left me a two-star review, I cried. Seriously, stupid I know, but I boo-hooed for almost two days. One day for each star.

The review ... Read More