Summer Book Review #4: Back on the Career Track

It’s funny how obscure comments stick in your mind ready to be instantly recalled with a connection – however remote that connection maybe.   I remember standing in my pediatrician’s office when my daughter, who is turning eight next week, was about ten weeks old.   I was talking with my newest friend, the nurse practitioner, who had seen us regularly over the past two months.  We were talking about my upcoming return to work which by the way I was looking forward to.  She made a pithy comment that jumped into my mind this week as I read, Back on the Career Track: A Guide for Stay-at-home Moms Who Want to Return to Work, by Carol Fishman Cohen and Vivian Steir Rabin.   Bernie Lane, the nurse practitioner said, “a happy mother is a happy baby.”  Truth be told I got more out of my conversation with Bernie than from my read of “Back on the Career Track.”

From my perspective Fishman Cohen and Steir Rabin attempted to achieve two objectives in this book:  Continue reading…

Summer Book Review #3: The Art of Possibility

I have a friend who uses “barriers” as her most common accoutrement.  Maybe you know someone life this?  She can’t because… her allergy shots don’t allow her to or she has to finish something important.   The litany of reasons grows increasingly serious and worrisome by the year.  I couldn’t help but think of her as I read The Art of Possibility:  Transforming Professional and Personal Life  by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.       The authors challenge readers to re-frame  our view of “life” so that both real and imagined barriers no longer impede us but give way to energy and focus.  The decade old best seller is nothing short of inspirational — a great beach read! Continue reading…

Summer Book Review #2: Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes

Have you ever had an obscure fact stick with you for a long time?  Here is one that has followed me…  In my late twenties I read Golda Meir’s autobiography, My Life.   Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel from 1969-1974, was a school teacher until the age of 43 (or thereabouts).  There it is.  Isn’t that incredible?  At the time she was only the 3rd woman on the planet to serve as a Prime Minister.  Her mid-life transition has always stuck with me.  Now, I am even more fascinated by it after reading Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, by William Bridges. Continue reading…

Camouflage, transition & summer plans

I hope you all enjoyed a breezy Memorial Day weekend.  We caught our neighboring town’s Memorial Day celebration.   The gentleman who spoke was from the Navy;  pressed whites, well spoken, a selectman.  On Memorial Day he challenged us not to mourn but to live.  He recounted that our fallen heroes had sacrificed it all to give us that chance.   Live.

So, in a quick quiet moment on Memorial Day I Continue reading…