Dating is hard. Today’s world focuses on appearances, and social media distorts reality. How can you tell if the person you’re dating is generally good or a wolf in disguise?

In today’s online dating world, you don’t always know if you’re getting an accurate representation of your love interest. People used to know the members of their community. It was easy to tell if someone was a good person, you knew everything about them, you probably went to kindergarten with them!

While convenient and easy to use, the advances in internet dating leave people on their own when assessing their…

A stretch of warm weather in the Northeast has unleashed my inner clean freak. She has been locked-up for this locked-down year out of mental health necessity. It has felt impossible to keep the house clean with all the snow, salt, and sand (and people in here), but I’m ready to get down to the nitty-gritty.

The problem is that chemicals are everywhere and in everything, from our water sources to our carpeting. In just about everything we touch or ingest are traces of hormones, antibiotics, styrene, and phthalates, known as endocrine-disrupters. Scientists link these chemicals with developmental, reproductive, brain…

This is the accidental love story between the bad boy of nighttime, insomnia, and my newest darling, writing on Medium. I have just recently linked the pair up, and they are a great match. I’m sharing this story to assist others that may benefit from a similar love connection.

In a busy household, writing in the middle of the night has become my replacement for Virginia Woolf’s room of one’s own.

So many interruptions!

Before I introduced my insomnia to my writing, creating a quiet nighttime haven to write, each story took me a painfully long time. I thought it took me about…

Today marks 14 years that we have had my daughter’s funny, intelligent, creative spirit in our family.

She is bright and easygoing now, but we were told that she would not live to see this day when I was pregnant.

Two days before Christmas

The doctor realized that my daughter’s kidneys’ measurements were off at my first ultrasound at five months of pregnancy. They scheduled weekly ultrasounds at that time but made them sound routine. And I’m sure they were.

But when I was more than seven months pregnant, the ultrasound scans showed my daughter’s kidneys growing at an accelerated rate.

After that ultrasound…

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure.” — Gen. Colin L. Powell.

Life is scary. As we get older, the glaring risk in everyday activity becomes hard to ignore.

Becoming a parent, especially, exposes the risk in everything. This is clear when your mother chases you out the door with sunscreen, or your grandfather scolds you not to drive in the snow.

Then suddenly we realize we have become our parents.

According to the New York Post, “68 percent of those surveyed said they feel more like their father with…

Every decade has a list song, the kind of music that manages to capture the essence of a time. History is woven into the lyrics, typically in list form. The singers croon a gentle chorus, only to shout out the list item indignities they have suffered but bear no responsibility for, they are quick to add.

These songs end up being part of history themselves, sometimes more memorable to Americans than the multitude of history classes we attend in our academic careers.

Science explains that the repetitive nature of listening to our favorite music helps the lyrics to stick in…

Lizzo is undeniably a star. Her upbeat, self-loving, body-positive anthems provide a departure from the melancholy and many times depressing song offerings on the radio. Everyone from Beyonce to Rihanna to Eddie Murphy’s kid is a fan.

Surprisingly, though, when Lizzo first decided the music business was for her, she didn’t see herself standing center stage. It’s hard to believe now, but the multi-talented singer, dancer, flutist, rapper, and lyricist didn’t see herself singing lead, so she would direct her other friends to sing in the girl groups she joined.

And when she did put herself out there? …

We can all agree that Tom Brady is the GOAT of football. With seven Super Bowl rings, it’s clear; he wins games. It doesn’t matter the team or their record, he is consistent, reliable, hardworking, and a player you can count on to get it done.

Hardworking, consistent, reliable, gets it done. Sounds like a mom to me.

I would argue that Tom Brady is successful because he shares the qualities, characteristics, and work ethic of moms. He is the symbolic mom of every one of his football teams.

Unlike moms, though, he accomplishes his goals with unlimited money, resources…