By Carol Grannick on September 14, 2010
My favorite part of the Rosh Hashanah service, which I find in my synagogue’s Harlow Machzor each year, are these paragraphs of not only Jewish, but universal significance:
Every person born into this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique…Every man’s foremost task is the actualization of his unique, unprecedented [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Lessons From Life | Tagged Rabbi Susya, resilience
By Carol Grannick on September 8, 2010
I’m more comfortable being left than leaving. I discovered (or probably re-discovered) that the other morning as I said goodbye to family and friends in New York. The feeling surprised me. But naming and accepting it was a comfort.
The last time I recall feeling this way, I was leaving New York as a young adult. [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Lessons From Life | Tagged explanatory style, resilience
By Carol Grannick on August 31, 2010
The word “optimism” appears liberally in the tour literature when describing the Renaissance in Florence, Italy.
So the connection between optimism and creativity is not information only provided by modern neuropsychology research. Whatever inborn genius existed, the belief in human capacity created an environment in which genius could practice and flourish.
The connection between this and the [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Lessons From Life | Tagged Creativity, Michelangelo, optimism
By Carol Grannick on August 24, 2010
My memory improved during my month-long vacation. It was too noticeable to ignore. Although my pre-vacation memory hadn’t been bad, I had noticed a change in how much I recall after I’d read something.
Yet on my journey to Italy, I found myself reading, then conveying information to my husband at later times with complete [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life | Tagged Positive Thinking
By Carol Grannick on June 29, 2010
If you’re going through a difficult time with your writing or your life, you may find that positive emotions of joy, interest, and inspiration are available in the restorative experience of re-reading a favorite book.
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Lessons From Life | Tagged Kerry Madden, writing life
By Carol Grannick on June 22, 2010
The Irrepressible Writer is a hunter-gatherer. Because positive emotions come and go, and because they are “lighter” than negative emotions, I’m always searching.
A good writing conference is invaluable for positivity-creating experiences, and I had the good fortune to attend the magnificent Illinois-SCBWI Words In The Woods 2010 retreat/conference this past weekend.
You can read about [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life | Tagged Words In The Woods, Writers Conference
By Carol Grannick on June 8, 2010
I’m not one to recommend or partake in food as a way to increase positive emotion, unless I happen to be hungry and the food is nourishing and delicious.
But yesterday a soft-serve ice cream cone brought me unexpected and to-be-savored moments during a difficult time. My husband, a chocolate milkshake lover, said he was heading [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life | Tagged positivity
By Carol Grannick on June 1, 2010
As usual, Bob Herbert’s column in the Tuesday, June 1 New York Times is an expression of my thoughts and emotions. I find myself deeply distracted from my work by the state of the world.
And yet I will write today – enter revisions into my netbook (a recent purchase that caused an influx of positive [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life | Tagged Bob Herbert, learned helplessness, New York Times
By Carol Grannick on May 18, 2010
When I left my adopted hometown of New York City years ago, I flew back once a month for almost a year, weaning myself not only from friends, but from the city itself and the love-hate relationship I’d had with it for fourteen years.
In the years that passed, the mythic status of the city pulled [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life | Tagged revision, separation
By Carol Grannick on March 3, 2010
At #kidlitchat on Twitter Tuesday night, March 2, @gregpincus and @bonnieadamson (facilitators of the weekly chat) asked what book or books had inspired us to begin writing for children.
We began on track, then (not unproductively) veered over into books we loved, books that had had impact on us.
I said that, at least on a conscious [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life | Tagged Dr. Seuss
