Personal Change

Daydream Believer

jbloustein — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:52:05 -0500

Did you ever have a crazy idea that wouldn’t go away? A nudge so persistent you couldn’t ignore it?

Let me tell you mine. I wanted to start a business, making aprons. You know, those 1950s Suzy Homemaker ones with big bows in back like you see in old TV shows, the perfect thing to wear when sliding snickerdoodles from the oven or serving pigs in a blanket at a party.

Like the ones my grandmother wore. The kind of retro apron you couldn’t find just anywhere, at least I couldn’t.

All for Keith

admin — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 06:35:00 -0500

Nothing will ever erase the memory of our last Sunday together.

Darrell, my husband, had to get ready for harvest, so my 11-year-old son, Keith, played "Dad" when it was time for church. Keith loved church. So much so that he said he wanted to be a minister when he grew up, though farming was in his blood.

"You look nice," he told me that morning—just like Darrell would have—when he came into the living room to get his Bible. "And you smell good too!"

In My Neighborhood

admin — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:39:00 -0500

I should have been happy when I turned 30. My life was exactly what I'd worked for—Stanford B.A., grad school at the University of California, Berkeley, a future as a sociology professor at some big-name college.

I was on the upwardly mobile track everyone—my family, friends, people I grew up with in my San Francisco church—expected of me.

Turning Injury Into Opportunity

batch — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:05:07 -0500

Army Staff Sergeant Josh Olson did not allow the loss of his right leg to keep him from proudly serving his country.

In fact, the soldier has translated his love of public service into a passion to represent Team USA as a shooter at the 2012 Paralympic Games, according to a story on the Fort Benning Public Affairs Office website.

Wonder Dog

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:57:04 -0500

It started with small things. I'd wake up in the morning feeling weak and unrested, despite having slept through the night. Maneuvering the groceries out of my car, I'd suddenly get so dizzy I'd have to put the bag down on the ground to get my bearings again. As someone who has lived with MS for more than 30 years, I was used to coping with my symptoms. But these new episodes were distressing.

Re-discovered

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:23:25 -0500

The bulldozer drove back and forth over the mountain of photographs—several hundred thousand dollars' worth, more than a decade of my hard work. I stood at the Fort Myers, Florida, county dump, watching it get ground into the dirt. Was this all my whole life really added up to?

Gone to the Dogs

admin — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:21:00 -0600

Pali Boucher's life has literally gone to the dogs. Of course, you could say it began that way too.

Pali is the founder—and prime pup protector—of Rocket Dog Rescue, a San Francisco-based all-volunteer organization that saves dogs from overcrowded shelters, where they might be put to sleep, and finds them loving homes. She's known for taking on the hardest cases, dogs many would consider unadoptable because of their disabilities or behavioral or medical problems.

Sanctuary Space

admin — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 12:25:00 -0600

It took aromatherapy practitioner and licensed massage therapist Candice Courcy nine years to work up the nerve to leave her job at a Tucson, Arizona, spa and launch her own line of handmade organic body products.

Not long after that, her friend Alan McArthur asked her to be his partner in a new business, an organic day spa in Athens, Georgia.

On the Wings of Love

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 06:57:00 -0600

Do you collect those little bottles of shampoo and lotion from hotels? Flight attendant Nancy Rivard did, and it paid off.

But first a little bit about Nancy. She thought she had her path mapped out. She was a supervisor at American Airlines, rising up the corporate ladder. Then her father's death made Nancy take a closer look at her life, at the rungs of that ladder. She saw no higher purpose for herself.

Start at the Bottom Again?

admin — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:45:20 -0600

One sunny afternoon in 1982 I stood looking out over Minneapolis; the city below, seen from my office on the 31st floor of the glittering new Pillsbury headquarters, seemed spread at my feet. In a way it was.

I had good reason to be satisfied. After all, I was the man responsible for the completion of the building. Getting it finished and moving everyone in, in record time, had earned me a vice presidency and all the perquisites that went with it. After 10 years of hard work, I had arrived in the corporate world.