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.
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 Pointless Overlaughing
“Enjoy this time, it goes so fast” is the single most repeated piece of parenting advice that I’ve heard since having kids. Since I chose to become a single mom at an older age than my friends, having my kids at age 46 and 50, I hear it from my peers not just the older … More A Piece of Advice
I was talking with some friends the other day about the movie Free Solo. One of my friends breezily remarked that Alex Honnold was crazy for climbing El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, a nearly 3,000 foot ascent without ropes, anchors or any other protective gear. Before I watched the movie, I would have agreed. … More Scaling the Walls of Our Dreams
I recently bought my 6-year-old daughter day of the week socks. When I wrote a post on my personal blog about the system she spent an hour making to store them in a labeled shoe box, I loved the education I got in the comments. We spend a lot of time dreaming up systems to … More A Systematic Approach
We have a family story that has always fascinated me. When I was in my 20’s, my dad’s mom, Nana, told me the story of my dad’s first two years and how she prayed for his life. Following his birth, my dad contracted dysentery at the hospital and was sickly for two years, eventually resulting … More Talking with a Higher Power
This last weekend, I was out listening to live music for the first time in two years and suddenly the people, the place and the context overran me with a sublime feeling of community. I was with my brother and his wife and because the lead singer of the blue grass group we were listening … More Community
Shortly after I returned from Everest Base Camp in 2001, I went with my dad to hear Beck Weathers speak. Anyone that has read Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air or any of the other books about the 1996 disaster on Everest, is probably familiar with his story. Here’s my abridged version: Beck was a … More The Power of Stories
A few months ago, my daughter and her best friend were doing an art project at my dining room table. My 6-year-old daughter announced that she didn’t like the color brown. And her best friend took offense at that because she is brown. I identify as heterosexual, white female. I am so unambiguous about that … More The Gift of Empathy
At a meditation retreat I attended a few years ago, the leader off-handedly told a story about a moment when she was doing a large group meditation practice with the renowned meditation teacher Jack Kornfield. The six of us sitting around laughed politely at her description of 500 people doing a slow walking meditation practice … More The Best Kept Secrets are Boring
Let me pose a hypothetical job description: Looking for someone good with words. Work involves writing about topics that interest you and that enable you to ponder your experience and wisdom. Your ability to connect to other people with varied backgrounds and experiences in order to build a community of feedback that will help you … More The Business of Writing
The other day on a weekend I was trying to get my children out the door to go to the zoo. I looked over and both my children were lying on the floor near the back door looking at a lady bug. When was the last time you laid on the ground to look at … More The Lens We Look Through
The other night my two-year-old son wanted me to get a step stool out of the closet. As I was lifting it out of the storage space, he reached for it and his littlest pinky finger got pinched in the hinge that connects the sides of the ladder as it opens. Yikes! I put the … More The Art of Apology
The other night as my mom and I were talking about Ukraine, my six year old daughter asked, “Are we safe?” It made me wonder – what is it that makes us feel secure? Locked doors, guard dogs or gated communities? Enough money in the bank account that we could afford displacement? Physical health, strength … More A Sense of Security
In this post I’m going to talk about the Divine. I use the word God but I intend it generally as in the God of your understanding. As my friend who is in AA has told me, often times a newcomer will come in to a meeting and say that they don’t believe that there … More God and Football
When I was climbing mountains, I’d regularly sign up for a guided climbing trips, sometimes with a friend and sometimes by myself. It was a great way to travel and also get to climb a mountain or two. Typically we’d all converge in a meeting place and do the initial meet and greet and then … More The Feeling of Community
After I wrote that post on Vulnerability last week, I had lunch with my friend Doug. He was the person I mentioned in the post as the friend who’d asked about the blog and then not responded when I shared it with him. Turns out that he’d both read and liked the writing very much … More Backpacks
The other day my friend, Doug called when I was working on my post for Pointless Overthinking. When I responded to his question to tell him what I was doing, he said, “Oh, that’s awesome. Send me the link to that blog.” I did and then….<nothing.> Did he not like my latest post? Did he … More Vulnerability
In March of 2001, I trekked to Everest Base Camp with my friends Phil and Sue who were attempting to summit Mt. Everest that year. They had invited a few of their friends to join them on the 30 mile trek in and we’d assembled in Katmandu, Nepal to gather our last few supplies before … More Sharing Wisdom
My kids and I are in quarantine. Hearing about this, a friend left a bag with flowers, soup, mac ‘n cheese, herbal tea, chocolate bars and most importantly, a project for each child on the porch. She didn’t ask what we needed because I would have said “nothing. We are fine. But receiving her offering … More Acts of Kindness
Year ago I was writing a technical book with two business partners. It was a beast – 737 pages of dense and technical content. We divided up the chapters that each of us was going to write. I agreed to do more than the others because I’d written a technical book before. But it was … More Bemoaning our Fate