After twenty-three years as an educator, the end of the school year is always one of my favorite times in the classroom. It is deeply bittersweet, and I love it for that reason. I’ve always believed that the sweetness of life is enhanced by the bite of hard work, sustained effort, and deep investment. This year, however, the bittersweetness feels a little different. For the past nine months, I have been building a life in a new community, in the lovely city of Portland. While

Maybe you already know that the default human brain is wired for negativity. I was recently reminded of this when I heard someone say, “I have an angry brain.” My immediate reaction was gratitude. I felt lucky, thinking I had somehow escaped unscathed, like I was just naturally built with a brain that defaults to neutral or positive thoughts. Don’t get me wrong, I still get overwhelmingly sad about the atrocities in the world, and I get frustrated by my own human shortcomings

Maybe there are two types of people in this world: the crew who coast through life, day after day, waiting for... well, who knows what?...