Some people seem to think of hope as kind of a feeling that comes and goes. Others understand it more as part of a person’s very constitution – you’re either an optimist or a pessimist, and once the thought pattern is set, that’s that. But in fact, hope is...
Not long after I’d begun work as a counselor in a high poverty, high trauma school, I played a social/emotional game with a group of students in which I’d ask questions to get them thinking. “What would you do if you found $10,000?” I asked the children. Having come...
If you followed the news at all over the 4th of July weekend, you likely saw beaches filled with an unsettling number of people, many ignoring the mask and social distancing guidelines for controlling the spread of COVID-19. Though plenty of folks were concerned about...
It’s more than a little ironic that some key things that could most help us manage stress can seem hardest to come by during times like our current health and economic crisis: hope, gratitude, and joy. Or at least it is when you believe they depend on circumstances...
Having spent many years as a teacher, I remember how challenging the week before spring break could be – everyone feeling the freedom of spring after the long months of winter and needing a break from each other. I can’t help but think how much harder it is...
I was teaching in a 6th grade classroom one day when I was struck by the way some students were talking about what a dangerous world we live in, with “bad” people lurking everywhere in it. “How many bad people do you know?” I asked. “Oh, not many, really. But there...
