#7 Mom

Gratitude #7 – My Mom Today is my wee Irish mither’s birthday. It seems like an auspicious time to express my gratitude that my mom is my mom. Trying to list all the reasons my mom rocks would probably take forever and make this post crazy long. Instead, allow me to share some of my…

#6 Life

Gratitude #6 – Life I suppose after having had a massive heart attack and being at risk of death for a minute there, it would have been more politic of me to make being alive the #1 thing for which I am thankful this year. But when I wrote the post for #1, it was…

#5 Rebecca Garrison Sokoloff

I know I use the same thankful every year around this date, but it’s worth repeating. Plus I believe that remembering and talking about the departed provides a kind of immortality. I never met Oscar Wilde, for example, but I love him to bits, nonetheless. Gratitude #5 Rebecca Garrison-Sokoloff I am thankful for having had…

#2, #3, #4: Safe, Resourced and Connected

I recently watched a video seminar led by Fleet Maull, a senior mindfulness and meditation teacher in both the Shambhala and Zen Buddhist traditions. Among other topics, the video discussed dealing with stress and anxiety. Fleet put forth the notion that our reactions to sudden stressful or dramatic situations, when you peel back the layers…

30 Days of Gratitude; #1 – Bloodless Transition of Power

Last November, I was participating in a thing on FaceBook where you listed something for which you were thankful each day in November. A lot of people I know were doing it and it was cool to see all the gratitude expressed online. It’s important to take time to appreciate what you have; it’s far…

I am Groot: Diversity in Hollywood

If you know me, you’ll probably be surprised that I am not taking the opportunity of this being Labor Day to write something about the Labor Movement through history or the need for an increased minimum wage or the reinstatement of unemployment insurance in North Carolina. Fear not, I am still subjecting my kids to…

A Poem

I can’t believe it’s been nearly 2 months since I’ve posted. I guess I’ve had a lot on my mind that just hasn’t been making it to the page. I am, in fact, working on a proper post now. In the mean time, here’s a poem. It was one of those things that came to…

Why I Stopped Practicing Law, pt III

The Practice of Law, in General In case I didn’t explicitly say it in my previous post, How I Accidentally Became a Family Law Attorney, I went to law school because I believed it was a noble profession through which I could affect positive change in the world, or at least in the lives of…

Why I Stopped Practicing Law, pt II

The Wrong Area of Law Most lawyers avoid family law like the plague. Some are hobbyists, practitioners who focus on a different area of law – criminal or real estate law or something – and take on the odd domestic case here and there thinking it will be easy because it’s “only a custody case”…

Why I Stopped Practicing Law, pt I

By the time I had my heart attack last year, I was already in the process of transitioning out of legal practice. I had dissolved my law firm a few months earlier and was wrapping up the last remaining cases and taking on only a limited amount of simple, flat-fee work. There were several reasons…