GRACE IN THE GRAY AREAS

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53937413190808573392012-03-05T15:37:17.924-05:00GRACE IN THE GRAY AREASKaren Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.comBlogger531100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-81323953438902603772012-03-04T17:11:00.000-05:002012-03-04T17:17:14.347-05:00Leaving the Lake

I sit here in my living room on a Pajama Sunday, conscious it’s one of just few such days left here in my townhouse as I prepare for a move to an apartment in a nearby town in just three weeks. As I stare out the window and reflect on the huge change coming in my life, I realize it’s not just what’s inside my house that I’ll miss, it’s what’s outside. It’s that beautiful lake with the sun

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-12570703953417301872012-02-11T14:50:00.001-05:002012-02-11T14:50:19.835-05:00A No-Regrets Life

I met Mary the way hundreds if not thousands of people around the world met Mary. I was traveling into her city—at the time, Beijing—and a mutual friend arranged for me—a poor foreign student—to stay with her. Stay I did, for a week, with my traveling companion, in the home of this vibrant perfect stranger who truthfully I didn’t see much of because her work schedule. The most vivid

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-9939724832920457432012-01-02T20:27:00.001-05:002012-01-02T20:29:35.590-05:00Unconditional

I am blessed with an inordinate number of very wise friends, with whom I can not only goof off and have fun but also with whom I can talk about things that really matter. One such friend and I were catching up. A lot of crap was going down for both of us, most traumatically her dad’s being diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. She told me about visiting her parents, about going to the

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-38046830661395154492011-11-15T20:31:00.001-05:002011-11-15T20:58:13.054-05:00'Tis the Season to Lose All Reason

“The holidays are all about misery and obligation. If I didn’t have that every year I’d miss it.” (Grace Adler to her mother on the TV show Will & Grace) My default reaction to the realization that the holidays are around the corner for years has been dread. I know it’s not just me. For many of us, holidays are classic gray areas, annual

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-12557138381529199932011-10-23T19:15:00.001-04:002011-10-23T19:15:54.157-04:00Do Not Lose Heart, We Were Made for These Times

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés has made this available under a Creative Commons copyright. I love it so am sharing with you. If this isn't Grace in the Gray Areas I don't know what is. Karen I've put on this piece a Creative Commons copyright, meaning you may distribute it with citation noncommercially, to whomever you would like. I would be made especially happy if you were to post it in

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-10577944810363872652011-10-09T20:43:00.000-04:002011-10-09T20:58:28.029-04:00Inspiration

Inspiration can sometimes feel in short supply when all the news is bad and all the newsmakers are villains, “celebrities,” or obstinate politicians. So when real inspiration comes along, I take note. It can come from many directions, but most recently my participation in Leadership Montgomery’s Class of 2012 has been a rich source—and we’re less than one month into the program. I’ve

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-57983654613721632882011-09-11T16:10:00.000-04:002011-09-11T16:10:25.620-04:00Light in the Dark

“For I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth, truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists.” (Mohandas Gandhi) The sun is out today. Still a startling rarity after dark days of nearly nonstop rain that made us forgot all complaints of a hot summer. A crazy summer all

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-83034359308462042552011-08-23T07:00:00.000-04:002011-08-23T07:00:09.669-04:00More Vamping about Camping

Writing my last post about going to day camp and sleep-away camp also got me thinking more broadly about camping. When I was a kid that was the main thing we did on summer vacations, despite my desperate dislike of bugs, outdoor toilets, and getting my hands (much less my body) dirty. Though I complained at the time, I have a rosy glow of a stream of summers driving in gorgeous New England

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-1287760415027287552011-08-16T10:00:00.001-04:002011-08-16T10:00:07.301-04:00Camp Complains-a-Lot

Earlier this year when asked to recall memories of sending my son to camp, I was amazed at the floodgate of memories that opened and washed right over that more recent time, flowing all the way back to my own childhood experiences of camp. I went to Camp Featherfin, which I liked fine, except for the fact it was outdoors and there were bugs and dirt. My main memory was setting up the

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-35293916719115131272011-07-25T21:32:00.002-04:002011-07-25T21:34:54.088-04:00Nonfiction Notes for Summer

Summer reading doesn’t have to be all light mysteries, romance and other fiction. (Although they do have a special place in my beach bag!) Two works of nonfiction in particular have enriched my summer so far. Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan (William Morrow, 2010). The author, just 29 at the beginning of this tale, was

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-43832825410716723112011-06-28T22:05:00.000-04:002011-06-28T22:05:25.915-04:00Beached (A Love Story)

I am so happy, tucked safely in the shade of a big yellow umbrella while lulled by the crash of ocean waves against the endless sand. Families are pouring onto the beach as the clouds clear, joining the rest of us intrepids who were out here under total cloud cover. It’s clear that were the strong breeze to cease it would be suffocatingly hot out here, clouds or no clouds. Some folks sit

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-50302406594580821362011-06-12T18:11:00.001-04:002011-06-12T18:18:15.693-04:00Rolling Blackouts

My life just flashed before my eyes. I’m not sure why I found myself carrying three Rolodex cases downstairs from my home office. I’d been looking at the two old ones across the room from my desk for years and decided I could do a small decluttering/purging project while I watched TV. I didn’t realize it was going to be a retrospective of my life. So, how do you tell when it’s time to toss a

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-51116388219880679112011-06-02T23:39:00.000-04:002011-06-02T23:39:02.446-04:00Stories on the Train

A day-long train ride lay ahead of me to Charlotte, North Carolina, where I was headed for a visit to an old friend. I was prepared to enjoy lots of quiet time with my books and my journal, and I did, and more. I’m always struck by how cordial everyone is in train travel, smiling, nodding, talking, with an ease absent from the stress-filled world of plane travel. My first encounter reflected

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-28942179644294998772011-05-09T20:07:00.000-04:002011-05-09T20:07:59.771-04:00Word Play for Dinosaurs

I increasingly catch myself using expressions that I picked up as a kid from my elders. This not only blatantly dates me, but also leaves people around me befuddled. This happens most often with my son and others younger than me, of course, but also with people who didn’t grow up with their Nana living with them like I did. So for those of you not blessed by advanced age and/or proximity of an

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-29534647890249031472011-04-10T21:51:00.000-04:002011-04-10T21:51:48.694-04:00Casual Sundays

Anyone who knows me very well knows that I am normally loathe to make plans on a Sunday. Sunday is my shut down, re-center, recharge day. When I’m feeling contemplative, I call it Sabbath. But mostly, I just call it like it is. Pajama Day. There are two key elements to Pajama Day. No, make that three. No bra required. Sleeping in, not setting the alarm. Nothing planned,

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-18811156670557160252011-03-20T18:23:00.000-04:002011-03-20T18:23:25.471-04:00Postal Perceptions

You can learn a lot about someone from what comes in the mail. I remember the little heart flip of excitement when an envelope in that distinctive aqua came through our mail slot about seven years ago. Tiffany’s! I was curious, what did Tiffany want to share with me, a single mom living paycheck to paycheck, with no rich mate nor one in sight? I went page by page through the small catalog,

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-68022826424076618772011-02-20T22:16:00.000-05:002011-02-20T22:16:49.622-05:00Meditation “Challenge”—They’re Not Kidding

I’m watching a DVR’d episode of Dr. Oz (I’ve become addicted—subject for another post!) and Deepak Chopra is his guest. Chopra leads Oz and the audience in studio and at home in a short meditation to demonstrate the stilling and relaxing power of the practice. Now, I’ve tried meditation over the years (Radical Acceptance with Tara Brach, Insight Meditation with Sharon Salzberg, private lessons

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-25150068644789379312011-02-02T18:04:00.001-05:002011-02-05T23:58:18.260-05:00Shifting Focus to the Positive

The words below are an important reminder about the power of intention, about being careful what we focus on, and about lightening up on ourselves. They're excerpted from Ann Dunnewold's wonderful blog "Who Says?!!" at anndunnewold.com. (See her Feb. 1 post "Groundhog Day Begone" to read in its entirety.) Offered in the context of all those New Year's resolutions we made and are impatient to

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-86717937666619099172011-01-16T22:35:00.000-05:002011-01-16T22:35:41.549-05:00Of Brains and Books

“The reading of a sequence of printed pages is valuable not just for the knowledge readers acquired from the author’s words but for the way those words set off intellectual vibrations within their own minds. In the quiet spaces opened up by the prolonged, undistracted reading of a book, people made their own associations, drew their own inferences and analogies, fostered their own ideas. They

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-31800064277206232962011-01-02T16:32:00.000-05:002011-01-02T16:32:41.132-05:00100 steps to grace for 2011

Note: This is a guest post from Christopher Foster, TheHappySeeker.com Everybody would like to make their life more fulfilling and meaningful. As we cross the threshold into the New Year here are 100 ideas to help you find increased happiness and peace in 2011. 1. Pick up a stone and admire it for a few moments. 2. After you put the stone down look at your hand and admire that. Have

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-41887381303601311102010-12-22T20:24:00.002-05:002010-12-23T12:41:36.707-05:00Joy to the World

I admit I’ve become more than a bit “Bah Humbug” about Christmas. I’ve been that way for years now, and this year seemed like it would be even worse with personal financial and other woes and the generally miserable state of the union and the world. Not exchanging gifts with friends and family because we didn’t need more stuff yielded this year to not exchanging gifts because I’m too broke.

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-1739736112144308902010-12-06T13:04:00.001-05:002010-12-06T13:11:11.374-05:00Oh, Baby

I went to a baby shower last weekend for the daughter of two close friends. It was a tea party, so much fun, especially the part where we all oohed and aahed as the expectant mommy opened gifts, from hand knitted blankets to adorable little onesies to colorful changing pads to jungle print crib linens. I couldn’t help but think, though, that there were some very important gifts Lesley Jane

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-65167601614503399092010-11-21T20:41:00.000-05:002010-11-21T20:41:17.464-05:00Thankful

I’d be remiss if I didn’t take the opportunity of the holiday to say what and whom I’m thankful for. Both the serious and the silly. I urge you to come up with your own list (and share some of it in the comments section of this blog)! Here goes, with only the first few in any particular order… For my son, who has become such a fine young man, as he starts to make his way in the world of

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-41534221321613073252010-10-28T21:27:00.000-04:002010-10-28T21:27:27.659-04:00The Library Lover

A book I was reading late one night mentions a woman in a library. Suddenly, I’m transported decades back to the small, historic New England town library where I spent much of my childhood. I grew up there, in the town, yes, but perhaps even more so in that library where I spent so many hours browsing and reading, and whose bounty I brought home to transport me to worlds far away. At the back of

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-16602101686597211112010-10-14T00:12:00.000-04:002010-10-14T00:12:22.014-04:00Alive in the Artisphere

Once again my blog is saved from gloom and doom. This post was going to be about what a rotten time of it so many of us seem to be having these days, how tough life has become, the grave troubles of the world…So I picked myself up from my navel gazing and went out to remind myself of the beauty that flourishes alongside the blues. I went to an art opening. Arlington, Virginia is home to the new

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-65932499558980395602010-09-30T00:07:00.000-04:002010-09-30T00:07:41.465-04:00Randoms

While the onset of autumn signals a season of introspection for me, I haven’t sunk all the way into the deep reflection on life’s big issues quite yet, but hover, like the weather, so that tonight’s introspection falls on lighter fare. Things I am Officially Over:Cupcakes from boutique cupcake shops. So not worth the price. I can do better with a box of Betty Crocker mix and a tub of frosting.

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-27282709312412117112010-09-13T22:26:00.001-04:002010-09-13T22:29:09.649-04:00Reason for Hope

I reviewed Jane Goodall’s wonderful book Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey years ago in my monthly book column in Washington Woman magazine, but only recently watched the tie-in 1999 public TV special. Just as with the book, I was moved deeply by this extraordinary woman’s intellect and heart and how she applies both to serve the world. The world’s leading primatologist is best known for her

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-71735793761661305102010-08-24T20:49:00.000-04:002010-08-24T20:49:08.494-04:00Emails Gone Astray

Email. One of the love-hate relationships of the modern age. We’re lost when our email systems are down, but those same systems can make us insane. It’s an addiction, but gets a free pass from intervention and therapy because it’s so damned useful. It’s also so damned dangerous. It’s pretty hard to dial a wrong phone number and say something bad (though I have been accidentally speed-dialed

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-81611885265805392062010-08-09T22:54:00.000-04:002010-08-09T22:54:20.550-04:00Innie or Outie?

I have two sides, two aspects to my personality that are held uncomfortably together sometimes while other times one pushes into dominance. I am an introvert AND an extrovert. I can be quite convivial, vivacious even, at social events of a not-too- overwhelming size. Other times I could draw a box around myself perhaps six feet out on all sides and be happy to walk in the world with my privacy

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-32716339762958462092010-07-26T23:24:00.000-04:002010-07-26T23:24:29.366-04:00Night Moves

Small plaque on my desk: “’Not a morning person’ doesn’t begin to describe me.” I have always been inclined to sleep late in the morning and stay awake late in the evening. As a child that meant that I was dragged out of bed for school and went through the first part of the day in a fog, then read beneath my covers with a flashlight long after my parents had called lights out. As a college

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-69011088615428986152010-07-15T18:50:00.000-04:002010-07-15T18:50:30.373-04:00Education Shortfall

Somehow in the idle conversation that comes when you’re lounging on the sand between chapters of a good beach read, my friend Tina and I, both with newly minted college graduates, got to talking about important life skills courses they should be teaching teenagers in our school systems. Financial literacy, of course—using (or not) credit cards, debit cards. Balancing a checkbook or online bank

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-49408572019379099772010-07-05T19:54:00.000-04:002010-07-05T19:54:43.523-04:00Anatomy of a Sleepless Night

Close book, set the alarm, turn off the reading lights. Get comfortable, prepare to drift off. Realize it’s been more than a while and I have not drifted off yet. Swear I’m not going to check the clock but I do. It’s been 45 minutes. Get up and pee. Careful not to turn any lights on so as not to send wakeful cues to my brain, per books and articles I’ve been reading on insomnia and need for

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-13673422817723179712010-06-26T15:09:00.000-04:002010-06-26T15:09:26.914-04:00Callings

"I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung." Rabindranath Tagore I just finished a book that blew me away both for its insights and for the author’s crazy-beautiful way with the English language. The title of Gregg Levoy’s book alone was enough to make it jump off the

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-227217732614576322010-06-15T22:42:00.000-04:002010-06-15T22:42:35.791-04:00Dream Girl

I’ve always thought the best invention ever would be some sort of video recorder turned inward that would record our dreams and we could then replay them awake like movies. Endless entertainment, right? Whether happy or foreboding, my dreams are always vivid, in glorious Technicolor, cast of thousands, complex plots. In last night’s “show” I was heading for a huge field for a yoga class, and

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-91820351170332722352010-06-05T17:20:00.002-04:002010-07-15T18:52:34.327-04:00One More Time

After my wise and thoughtful meditation on life upon my son’s commencement last blog post, what you would be getting next if I didn’t feel so exposed would be a great blubbery piece I began writing last week with the words, “I am bereft.” I’ll spare you that one. Instead I will tell you, I am a great big mess. My body is acting out in every way it knows how—digestive, skin, allergies,

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-12527153817655867492010-05-24T14:50:00.002-04:002010-07-15T18:51:20.392-04:00Roots and Wings

At my son Sammy’s commencement ceremony, alumnus Craig Thompson spoke to the graduating class. In his address, he told a story of being on a plane and getting to know the people on either side of him, all three pleasantly lubricated by an in-flight drink or two. One was multilingual and the other two were asking questions about his background, and his other seatmate asked, “What language do you

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-69750692179757174252010-05-13T20:30:00.000-04:002010-05-13T20:30:09.232-04:00Owning Our Age

As we prepare to celebrate my son’s college graduation next week, I find myself pondering the eternal irony of young people chafing at what they perceive to be the constraints of their youth, straining forward into adulthood whose travails they know not, while older people look back fondly upon the freedoms of those earlier years and yearn for their lost innocence (and firm bodies). Last weekend

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-36369036687728433102010-05-06T21:33:00.002-04:002010-05-12T12:30:56.492-04:00So It is Written

In the introduction to Mary Pipher’s Letters to a Young Therapist, she notes, “I wrote these letters in the early morning. My desk overlooks an old maple tree, my flower garden, and bird and squirrel feeding stations.” Reading those words, I was suddenly filled with a yearning for a special place for my own reflective and creative writing. I do not use my home office for that writing, because

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-41882989750236167742010-04-26T23:06:00.001-04:002010-05-02T17:22:46.759-04:00Welcoming Waters

I am blissing out at water yoga. There are just a few of us in class this day and things are particularly peaceful, the water heavenly warm, cradling me, taking me at once inside myself and outside myself, or more accurately outside my “life.” Wouldn’t it be something if this could be my life, instead, this peace, no phones, no computers, no demands, as my teacher would say, “nowhere to be, no

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-67780091469139061052010-04-18T14:30:00.000-04:002010-04-18T14:30:15.628-04:00Encode This

Did you know that the human brain’s short-term memory can only store 5-9 things at once? What a relief, we’re not losing our minds! I’m reading a book I’m very excited about: Getting Organized in the Google Era: how to get stuff out of your head, find it when you need it, and get it done right by Douglas C. Merrill. Merrill is the former CIO of Google. He has a Ph.D. in cognitive science from

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-63680197285176967062010-04-10T12:38:00.000-04:002010-04-10T12:38:46.781-04:00How China Drove Me Crazy

Some of my most vivid memories of my years living and traveling in Asia are of the driving. My first road remembrances originated in my year in Taiwan fresh out of college: Flying around a huge traffic circle in the back of a taxi in the middle of Taipei my first day there, 60 miles an hour, huge suitcases leaning on me because there was no room in the subcompact’s trunk, no sign

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-9935401052873512862010-04-01T20:59:00.003-04:002010-04-01T21:10:17.687-04:00Confessions of an Anti-Domestic Goddess

I am the first to admit, I am a fan of shortcuts, cheats, faking it, prepackaged and prepared. Now I have met my cosmic twin, and she is Lisa Quinn. I’m referring to our philosophies on housekeeping—the less the better, the simpler the better. Quinn is a writer, TV host and “recovering Martha Stewart junkie” (we part company there as I’ve always thought of Martha as the devil incarnate). She’

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-58338737287246970542010-03-23T21:55:00.001-04:002010-03-24T11:23:36.862-04:00Chicken Soup Nourishes This Writer

Drum roll, please! Hot off the presses today, I have an essay in the new "Chicken Soup for the Soul” title, Thanks Mom: 101 Stories of Gratitude, Love, and Good Times. The book’s foreword is written by Joan Lunden, and the book features both scintillating but unknown writers like me and New York Times bestselling authors like Jacquelyn Mitchard and Brad Meltzer. My essay, “Turning into My

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-21865070254198498842010-03-18T22:49:00.000-04:002010-03-18T22:49:33.304-04:00Hope Springs Eternal

Are you feelin’ it? C’mon, I know you’re feelin’ it, too. Everyone’s walking around with a bit of a skip in their step and a smile on their face. Work’s still stressful, finances still lousy, the world’s still full of tragedy and sorrow. What’s changed? The sun is out. The air has lost its bitter edge and is seductively warming. Spring has sprung. Yeah, I know, hopefully I’m not speaking

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-503028965127739682010-03-10T22:07:00.001-05:002010-03-10T22:12:04.771-05:00Editing My Life

It took two weeks of back-to-back snowstorms, but I finally got around to the monstrous amount of filing that’s been looming over me in my home office for, oh, about five years. I’d staved off utter chaos and degradation a couple of times over the past couple of years, once enlisting a friend who was out of work for a while in a filing marathon (that’s how you can tell who your real friends are!

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-90720409867349054322010-02-28T21:55:00.001-05:002010-07-15T18:54:18.681-04:00Being a Mother: The Meaning & the Messiness

By some serendipity, or synchronicity, I’ve recently read several books about mothering that have really stuck with me, and since my last post on the tyranny of perfect parenting expectations clearly struck a nerve with a lot of readers I thought I’d share a couple of these “momoir” treasures. Melanie Gideon is a gloriously imperfect mother. I laughed and cried at her The Slippery Year: A

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-7351720355805501262010-02-21T00:34:00.013-05:002010-07-15T18:55:04.966-04:00Mothers Telling the Truth

“I believe that mothers should tell the truth, even--no, especially—when the truth is difficult. “ Ayelet Waldman Telling the truth about motherhood and encouraging others to do the same has been a theme in my writing and in my conversations with other women since I

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-2984213283573228332010-02-12T22:02:00.001-05:002010-02-12T22:06:05.460-05:00Cataloging a Changing Way of Life

I just got a blast from the past. Cleaning out some files, I came across an article I’d written nine years ago called “Catalog Come-ons, or How I Got into Mail Order Mischief,” about my addiction to catalog shopping. I’d never gotten it published but took a look again today to see if I could update it and recycle it somehow. Not a chance, I quickly realized. Wow, nine years was like a

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-90378570430272232522010-02-04T21:29:00.002-05:002010-02-06T21:32:37.297-05:00Entertaining Angels, Unawares

Is there anything more deeply satisfying than reading a great book? That was a rhetorical question, as anyone who knows me will attest. The answer is, no! I just finished an enchanting book called Baking Cakes in Kigali, by Gaile Parkin. It’s about a woman aptly named Angel who runs a small but popular cake business in her neighborhood in Rwanda. She and her husband, immigrants from Tanzania,

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-18476009133990872002010-01-28T20:48:00.006-05:002010-02-21T00:45:54.567-05:00All Kinds of Folk: A Great Weekend of Music

More on the elevating power of art-- I went to an amazing concert last weekend. The World Folk Music Association (WFMA) held its 24th annual Benefit Concert Weekend at the marvelous Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, and the theme this year was The Women of Folk Music. The Birch was full of faithful fans of the folk genre and fans of some of the many award-winning artists, but did anyone go

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-51145036632620245332010-01-19T00:58:00.005-05:002010-07-15T18:55:51.184-04:00Websites and Other Firsts

My mother cracks me up. After I emailed her to take a peek at my new website and first “soft-launch” blogging, she emailed me her feedback with the email subject line: “Baby’s First Website.” I love it, both for what it says about my 81-year-old mom’s still creative mind and quick wit (which I like to think I’ve inherited some of), and for how true it is that our kids have milestones all their

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-75760820163433177152010-01-12T00:14:00.006-05:002010-02-21T00:44:17.507-05:00On the Wings of Art

The winter is dark and cold and I am working too hard, right through the holidays. But tonight I shut off my computer early and give myself a breather. I am sitting in my recliner. It is midnight. I am reading a memoir that is alternately bringing tears to my eyes and making me laugh out loud. I am watching the Kennedy Center Honors on DVR. I turn it on thinking there might be a couple of

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5393741319080857339.post-79170763050580875182010-01-12T00:11:00.016-05:002010-07-15T18:56:41.176-04:00New Year's Resolutions for Not-So-Perfect Parents

(Bear with me. This was originally posted 1/5/10 as my first blog post at my website, www.graceinthegrayareas.com but I quickly tired of the blog features on the DIY site-builder...) I thought I'd take a crack at my first "soft launch" blogging with a reprise of an article I wrote for Washington Parent magazine more than a decade ago when my son Sammy was 10. That was back when I was still in

Karen Kullgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11098309925070020930noreply@blogger.com1