Wynne Leon is an optimist, an enthusiast of endurance sports and a woman intent in charting her own path. Which is a combination that has led to an unconventional life. When she was younger a life of adventure meant climbing mountains, traveling the world and being an entrepreneur. More recently, it’s been starting a family as a single parent at age 46, having another child at age 50 and adopting a highly-strung kitten, even though she really is a dog person. Her writing projects include technical computer manuals, articles about meditation and parenting, and Finding My Father’s Faith, a memoir about spirituality, solace and her relationship with her beloved father.
This past Saturday night I was over having dinner at my friends’ Rachel and Karl’s house. As our kids happily played together, we talked about technology, philosophy, and their recent vacation to Mexico and I marveled at how much I enjoy their friendship. It started because their daughter and mine were in a preschool co-op … More The Art and Science of Making Friends
I’ve been in a rut lately. I imagine this is not something I have to describe but just in case there is someone reading who is new to this planet, I’ll elaborate so we are all on the same ratty-tatty page. It’s starts out as a groove. I’m doing a routine because it gets me … More Asking Questions When a Groove Becomes a Rut
The other day I read a beautiful post that was a tribute to a dearly departed pet. It was so touching and zinged me right where there’s a sore spot from missing my beloved dog, Biscuit, who died six years ago. I had to walk away for about 30 minutes before I could write a … More Writing From The Heart
When I started putting together the memoir I wrote about my father, I had the good fortune of connecting with a great writing coach, Sheila. As she explained it to me, her job was to be the “ultimate reader” – the person who asked the questions about temporal lapses, gaps in the storyline, or unexplained … More The Ultimate Reader
I think every one of my dad’s sermons that I’ve heard or read opened with a bit of humor or personal story. It was his way of connecting – enticing the audience to want to listen and maybe even exhale a bit so they could take something deeper in. My dad was a Presbyterian pastor … More Tips on Love
When we celebrated our car turning 100,000 miles in December, we made the car a cake. After blowing out the candles, my seven-year-old daughter turned to ask me, “Are you going to be alive when this happens to me?” I stalled for time by asking if she was talking about getting her own car to … More The Next 100,000 Miles
The other night my brother, Jay, and I were out to dinner with his wife and another friend. Jay and I were sitting next to each other and my friend said it was funny to watch us with our synchronized big smiles, expressiveness, and gesticulating. We were talking about writing, something neither of us do … More Is Being A Writer an Inherited Trait?
We’ve been working hard to mold Wise & Shine into a community for readers and writers. This best of post is intended to provide a peek into the collaborative efforts and other content you may have missed. Please sign up for the newsletter to get information on content and contests. Heads Up Podcast Updates: We’ve … More Best of January
I’m riffing the title of this post from Jack Canfora’s Things I Think I’ve Learned So Far because Jack’s post is one of my favorites and I’m too tired from parenting to think of one of my own. And that matches with my experience of parenting – you have to take small favors and lifts … More Things About Parenting I Think I’ve Learned So Far
When I was a sorority girl in college, we all took turns on phone duty – answering the house phone lines, paging girls, or taking messages when calls came in. But in the January of 1989, it wasn’t just guys calling for dates, we had a lot of calls coming in from journalists who wanted … More Protecting the Impulse to Be Kind
When I was 20 years old, I went on a trip with other college kids to spend five weeks in Ecuador. On the part of the trip where we spent two weeks living with an Indian tribe in the Amazon river basin, I got into a debate with another young woman in the expedition. She … More Emotional Literacy
The other night I was fixing dinner while my seven-year-old daughter was in the family room working on her very first short story. “Momma, how do you spell persevere?” she asked. As I replied, I took in the really sweet scene and thought to myself “there’s another leaf that’s going to stick on my word … More My Love Affair with Words
We’ve been working hard to mold Wise & Shine into a community for readers and writers. This best of post is intended to provide a peek into the collaborative efforts and other content you may have missed. Please sign up for the newsletter to get information on content and contests. Cool Projects that Make a … More Best of December
My Twitter account tells me I joined February 2010, a piece of data that I wouldn’t have known unless it was provided it to me because I haven’t been active on Twitter until recently. I have 43 followers. What interests me about Twitter are all the ways users have devised to get more followers. There … More Followers versus Community
The other day, on a Saturday morning, I was trying to do a few more work things before the weekend began in earnest. My kids, three-years-old and seven-years-old, were busy watching tv so I snuck away to the living room to get some quiet. No more than three minutes later my younger child came in … More The Vortex of the Metaphorical and Messy Storm
The other day I was working at my desk when I felt like pressure tipped the scales and slid into anxiety. I had a client project that wasn’t going well, something that I tried to do for a friend didn’t turn out as I hoped, the holiday bills were adding up and I had strange … More Climbing Out Of My Gunk
When Todd Fulginiti recently published a post There is Try: Why Yoda Was Wrong it made me want to know more about whether he’s always been open to trying new things and if there is something or someone that inspires that cycle of resilience. Luckily we were able to talk about all that and more … More Podcast Episode 12: On Trying New Things
I have a friend who quite often doesn’t tell me the truth. It’s most often in small ways like, “I’d love to do that but I can’t because I have to <fill in the blank>.” Or “I’m sorry that I didn’t get that done but I had to <fill in the blank>.” And although I … More Telling The Truth
We’ve been working hard to mold Wise & Shine into a community for readers and writers. This best of post is intended to provide a peek into the collaborative efforts and other content you may have missed. Please sign up for the newsletter to get information on content and contests. Step 9, an audio play … More Best of November
When my brother was in his twenties and a couple of years into marriage, he explained to me his theory about the cleanliness threshold. He drew out a chart where he illustrated the state of the household mess and that when it increased, it hit his wife’s threshold for a messy house long before it … More Navigating the Gray Area