Be a peacemaker, not a know-all — As I was writing about the many things you can say instead of “I don’t know” while keeping out of trouble and remaining honest, it struck me that the positive version of that phrase is also worth examining. Do you often find yourself saying “I know”? In what situations? My…

How I learned ebooks aren’t actually devil-spawn, and 4 wonderful books that proved it — Prior to 2011, I thought that smartphones rotted the brain and that people who read books on screens weren’t completely human. To even consider using a device over the real thing required a massive shift in my thinking. Today I’m deeply invested in technology for just about everything, including reading…

I’ll never forget the blogger who inspired me to believe in myself as a woman and a mother. — The first time I wrote things and put them out there for anyone to read and told people it was me who wrote them, it seemed like the bravest thing I’d ever done. It wasn’t, of course. That it felt so revealed something of my state of mind. I’d allowed…

One powerful moment changed me forever — Was she really that ugly? I had to look again. Oh my. Yes, she was! Poor woman! That face was the most coarse and unpleasant I’d ever seen. She wore unflattering, poorly matched clothing that emphasised every bulge of her overweight frame. Her nose was large and bulbous, her features…

Strength in softness. Let go. Be humble. Embrace curiosity. — There’s a right way and a wrong way to up your game in whatever it is you do. Guess which one trying harder is? …

Is a moment of freedom worth more than a lifetime of misery? — When my youngest children were 8 and 10, we had a cockatiel called Iroh, named after Uncle Iroh in the cartoon series Avatar, The Last Airbender. I bought him after seeing the bond my brother in law’s (BiL) cockatiels had with him. Chester loved BiL, was utterly besotted with him…