It's Just Us Here Now

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Each year over 60 million tourists visit New York City. In 2010, I was one of them.

I spent a week with a few colleagues at Columbia’s Teachers College during the day and toured the city in the evening. We saw Jersey Boys and walked the Brooklyn Bridge to stand in line for two hours for Grimaldi’s pizza. We took a tour of the NBC studios and snapped photos on the top of Rockefeller Center. We walked through Central Park and followed our noses to Levain Bakery for the famous cookies. We stood on the steps of Cafe Lalo, peeking inside to see where Tom Hanks stood up Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail.

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New Year Benediction

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Last year, another writer challenged me to write a benediction for myself in January. I had already finished color coding my goals and filling out my planner, so it felt like a shift to speak kindness and grace over myself instead of expectation and striving. A good shift.

Benediction – the utterance or bestowing of a blessing

In Latin bene means “well” and dicere means “say”.

Here is what I wrote last year:

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On Identity & Claiming Gifts

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A few months ago I attended a women’s conference here in New York City. The theme of the conference was hope. On Saturday, we had the opportunity to attend one of about 20 different breakout sessions offered. One title caught my eye. I wanted to go to it, but felt I didn’t really belong there. I was sure the other women attending would see right through me and label me an imposter immediately. As my eyes wandered to other session titles, I let fear drive my feet away from the room where women were gathering for the session I wanted to attend. Then the emcee walked back on the stage and grabbed the microphone.

“I just want to encourage you for a moment. What is the one session you are too scared to attend?” I froze as my eyes darted back to the scary title. “Would you consider going there today? Don’t let fear or embarrassment hold you back from where you should be.” I was certain she was talking directly to me. I gathered up some confidence, and turned around. My heart raced as I walked back in to the session titled “Hope as an Artist”.

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Anticipating a Son

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Can I tell you a secret? I’m kind of scared to have a son. I always thought I would have two daughters. Obviously, there is no reason for this. It wasn’t even a longing, a hope, or a wish; although there is some comfort in being a “girl mom” that would bring a bit of familiarity to having two children of the same gender. Mostly though, it was just a thought that cemented itself more and more firmly in my mind over the past four years raising a daughter until I started to envision a future with two little girls in tow. I didn’t really believe that first ultrasound picture that clearly (at least to Brett – I still think all ultrasound pictures look like creepy aliens) showed that a boy was growing in my womb, not a girl as I had thought.

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Understanding

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Everyone in our family voted on Tuesday, even my three-year-old daughter. She, along with her classmates, voted for cupcakes. Chocolate or vanilla.  Since she is my daughter and was therefore born with a constant craving for chocolate, she was confident in her vote and that the outcome would result in eating a delicious, chocolaty cupcake with her classmates on Wednesday afternoon. I didn’t do much to prepare her for the unexpected outcome of vanilla being the winner. She was giddy and energized when I dropped her off, ready to let her voice be heard.

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