Last week my husband and I hiked one of our favorite alpine trails in one of our not-so-quiet-or-quaint-anymore Colorado mountain towns. In the summer, this meadow is full of diverse and multicolored wildflowers. The trail is appropriately called Oh-Be-Joyful, and it brings me joy just to say its name, let alone engage in its wonder...
Hammocks make me smile, whether they’re occupied or not, still or moving softly in the wind, hanging in a land-locked backyard or enticingly at a beachside resort, or simply pictured beautifully in a catalog (thank you, L.L.Bean for inspiring my purchase decades ago!). Hammocks make me smile whether they’re hung from pine trees during a...
I have a friend who detests the practice of turning nouns into verbs: summer into summering, winter into wintering. You may feel the same. But I kind of like it. For example, I’ve been partial to turtling and sabbathing these days. And now, springing. I’ve always been attracted to verbs and their action-orientedness. In fact,...
I know the pandemic has made us all a little more _____________________ these days. Fill in your blank. As an Italian-American, I have only one answer to that question: EMOTIONAL. No surprise. We Italians are an expressive sort, complete with lots of coordinating hand gestures. (I can still vividly picture the Italians in Lombardy in...
It’s a true gift to work with friends. Ellen Kresky and I have been friends since she was the creative director at Celestial Seasonings almost two decades ago. There, we worked on brand and product fit charts, re-energizing the retail store, and leveraging brand purpose throughout all touchpoints. When she became the global creative director...
I love that right after celebrating his 71st birthday and in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, Bruce Springsteen released a brand new album, Letter to You. That’s after a few other highly productive years back-to-back: Writing a 528-page autobiography, creating films, cutting other albums, playing worldwide tours, and doing a 236-show run on Broadway....
I was a born beach lover. I spent most of my childhood summers, like Springsteen did, blissfully along the shoreline of New Jersey — Ocean City, Beach Haven, Point Pleasant, Seaside, Wildwood. Then I moved to South Florida for undergraduate and graduate business degrees, where soaking up the sun while inhaling the scent of Hawaiian...
My husband and I are bareboat sailors and have chartered vessels all over the world before owning our own beautiful catamaran we called Playologist. It’s been mostly fun and frolic, and my adventurous mate captains our boat almost single-handedly as I chose, years ago, to take the less active approach. I specialize in other “Blue...
This article is part two of a two-part series on leadership by Andrea Syverson. Read part one, which includes tips one through three, here. As leaders, we’re continually pulled in many directions — both in and out of the office. How to stay centered? How to lead with clarity in a world of constantly changing variables?...
As leaders, we’re continually pulled in many directions — both in and out of the office. How to stay centered? How to lead with clarity in a world of constantly changing variables? How to not just survive but thrive? This spring, I had the delightful honor of joining Sheryl Clark, president and CEO of Boston...
