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I'm Rachel. Happy to meet you!

Featured Post

A love note to big hair

The theme song of my high school prom was Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me." Will you recognize me? Call my name or walk on by But really, there’s a lot about the 1980s I’d be happy to forget. It's one of my favorite parts of getting older -- looking at the past and seeing how wrong...
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2 days ago • 2 min read

A love note to Freddy Mercury

It was impossible to get through high school in the 1980s without hearing "We Are the Champions" by Queen. It was sung at sports events, of course, but also throughout the halls of my high school by young men proclaiming themselves, loudly. Always the chorus -- We are the champions -- never the...
9 days ago • 3 min read

A love note from the arcade

When I was a junior in college, I rented a large house with three other women. In the dining room was a full size arcade machine of the video game Gravitar. Full sized. Can you imagine? But here’s the thing – None of us ever even tried it. Months later my boyfriend visited and he wanted to...
16 days ago • 2 min read

A love note to joy

When was the last time you felt joy? I think of joy as happiness with carbonation added. Joy feels effervescent, bubbly. It reminds me of this scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Grandpa Joe & Charlie drink Wonka’s Fizzy Lifting Drink. Grandpa Joe, cantankerous from the...
23 days ago • 2 min read

A love note to snow days

Photo: Jonathan Knepper Snow day! Remember the feeling of being a kid on a snowy morning, finding out that school was canceled? Pure joy – the utter surprise of something wonderful and unexpected. Have you felt that way recently? Me neither. And the snow in Milwaukee this week made me...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read

A love note to putting down the Etch-a-Sketch

My clients often assume they’re the problem. I want to exercise regularly but I’m so undisciplined.” I’m so unfocused at work; I’m just lazy.” I don’t try to change their thoughts about themselves; I just ask new questions. One of my favorites is: What else could it be, if you were not...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read

A love note to forget your perfect offering

Happy Sunday! Sometimes I want to do something nice for a friend. A text is too small, flowers too impersonal. Maybe I think of sending a card that shares the feelings of my heart. But all the cards are too ordinary. And then – you know what happens – I do nothing. Has this ever happened to...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read

A love note to David Bowie

Happy Sunday! Embrace discomfort. This was one of the takeaways of Moonage Daydream, the new film about David Bowie. I watched it yesterday, during a rest day (thank you for your flexibility in receiving this love note on a Sunday). Moonage Daydream highlights David Bowie's artistic...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read

A love note to asking better questions

The Golden Girls Rose: Can I ask a dumb question? Dorothy: Better than anyone I know. There are no dumb questions. I have a teacher's heart and I believe this completely (even for you, Rose Nylund!). Any question, sincerely asked, opens a space for curiosity and growth. But sometimes our brain...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read

A love note to help you rest more? Inconceivable!

The Princess Bride (1987) Have you seen The Princess Bride? If you haven't, INCONCEIVABLE! This is the word that Vizzini says all the time, the one he may or may not know the meaning of. We use a lot of words without fully knowing what they mean. Some are ten-dollar words we've read but never...
2 months ago • 2 min read