The Brilliant Balance Blog

As school begins, lots of us are adding a new task to our morning checklist – packing healthy lunches (that our children will actually eat). I’m gearing up for the lunch-packing marathon in my own house, so I thought I’d dig back into my bag of tricks from my years at Nourish to share some ideas that can save you precious time […]

I remember the assignment like it was yesterday – a one-page paper for my Comparative Lit professor during my second year at Cornell. “And that one-page limit is FIRM, class. Don’t test me.” After reading, and researching, and note-taking my way through the project in a Diet Snapple-fueled frenzy (this was the 1990’s in New York – Diet Snapple […]

Earlier this week I found myself 20 feet in the air, strapped into a harness, perched on the edge of an 18″ square of wooden planks. Several yards ahead of me loomed an identical square upon which I was to find my footing next. But between me and that next wooden square? Nothing but a view of the earth below. […]

My youngest daughter learned to swim this summer. I held my own breath as she slipped under the water, legs fluttering and arms twirling, pushing, striving, reaching, until she resurfaced, breathless, on the other side of the pool. My pride was surpassed only by her exuberance as she exhaled mightily, gulped in oxygen and fresh air, and exclaimed, goggles raised to her forehead, […]

Last week I broke the Cardinal Rule of Bloggers. Moreover, I did it on purpose. As a rules-follower-to-the-bone, this came as a surprise even to me! So let me elaborate. I didn’t publish a blog post last week. (Gasp!) That may not sound like a big deal to you, but in my line of work, not publishing is a […]

I’m willing to bet there is something you are thinking about doing, and you’re wondering how you’ll know if it’s really time. I’ve lost track of how often I’ve been seated across from a strong, impassioned, talented woman who was wondering aloud how she could know for sure if her time was now. Let me share […]

It was just a simple wooden kitchen table. If I hadn’t seen the sign I might have walked past it altogether. It was a little worse for the wear, and totally ordinary, except that this table held a story. Stationed now in the Museum of American History in Washington DC, it had once belonged to the Brown family […]

Last night, an old thought pattern I’d thought had long gone dormant was triggered by an innocuous little post on Instagram. The person posting was joyfully sharing a success, which is of course a totally normal and completely acceptable thing to do on social media. Yet something about seeing this particular post just before I went to bed sent me into a tailspin. (As […]