As he boarded the plane at midnight, tears fell like a monsoon of emotion flooding the terrain of my motherhood. Submerged in my own fear, my own absolute amazement of his courage, his rite of passage, I took a deep breath.

I am a writer. If you knew how long it’s taken me to say those words aloud and believe them, you might wonder, or feel pity, or catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror.

Earlier this month I gave birth to a daughter. My first. She was born with midwives but had to go to St. Luke’s for an infection.

Valentine’s Day is a day for kissing. Kisses come in all shapes and sizes just like the people that give them.

I really got excited about women’s health in my teen years. My father had a major influence on me and was devoted to healthy nutrition, supplementation, and natural remedies.

It’s summer in the Antarctic and on sunny days I can venture out onto the bow of our Sea Shepherd vessel, the Bob Barker, to let the warmth penetrate my bones.

I am Tabra Tunoa, Fabulous, Creative, Jewelry Designer, Artist, and Very Courageous World Traveling Adventurer. That’s how I like to think of myself….

In this video, Pema shares the story of how an emotional event in her life led her on the path to Buddhism.

Respect is paramount in my family. Not only respecting the elders and our traditions, but – most important for me as a Hispanic teenager – respecting my father, “the lawmaker.” In a traditional Mexican family, this respect is not only expected, but demanded.

This DTBF story is provided in audio. It is four minutes long.

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As wise women and men in every culture tell us: The art of life is not controlling what happens to us, but using what happens to us.

My mother used to tell me to apply lipstick even when I step outside to take out the garbage. But in my twenties the need to be prepared for the unexpected was not an issue, even without a stitch of makeup.

When I was asked to write a piece explaining why I was fabulous, I set out to find every excuse imaginable in order to postpone submitting it.

In my past, danger has stared me in the face and I have been consumed by its dissatisfying anguish.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Pippy Longstalker. My number is 36aa and I skate for the Dominion Derby Girls.

I have a great job; I climb trees to study the rainforest canopy. My journey to understand trees started early in my life, when I climbed the eight sturdy sugar maples in the front yard of my home in suburban Maryland.

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE … enough money within her control to move out and rent a place of her own, even if she never wants to or needs to…

“peaceable kingdom”
and the dog lay down with the rabbit and the chicken said ‘hey’ to the pig and the squirrel said ‘look at my nut’

I’m in line at the grocery store, and everyone’s avoiding me. I am one of those people who slow the line down by asking the cashier to use bags I brought along.

I’m not sure why I was determined to be an actress from such an early age but I was – ever since I can remember having thoughts of what I would “be.”

I was raised in a small farm town in Oregon in a very athletic family. My brother was a professional fighter and a Gold Medal Champion.

As a child, I always felt ready to be a “grown up.” When I was seven years old, I would step into my mother’s high heels and walk around on the hardwood floor to hear the clunk, clunk I associated with older women.

Some clouds have some surprisingly useful silver linings. Cancer, for example.

Let me start this by telling you a little about me. I have an inquisitive mind, some might say nosy; I have always wanted to know what was going on in life, both internally and externally.

When I was a little girl, every shooting star, every coin tossed into every fountain, every candle blow of the birthday cake candles resulted in the same wish: to be the same as everyone else.

What is it about boobs, anyway? Why do they make people so insane? And by “people,” I don’t just mean men.

In September 2004 I had been for several years the director of my own Spanish dance company, Danzamarina, a group of children and adults that performed the music and dance of Spain throughout the Washington, D.C., area.

Have you ever had a moment in your life where you knew beyond logic a change was needed? Not the ordinary kind of change, like a new hair color, but a heavy, significant change.

Writing about what makes a person fabulous is incredibly easy, unless that person is you. Suddenly you are struck with writing something similar to a personal ad and my first few lines were something like “loves slugs, and ice cream, but not slug ice cream”.

My first time skiing was a true experience for me. I was 12 years old and was in North Shore, Tahoe, near Christmas time. We spent this time with my cousins, uncle and aunt, and some friends of theirs.

I lick the salt from my lips and toss my tangled hair, wet from the sea. I plop on the towel I laid flat, flex my sandy feet, and dig my fingers into the course earth, a pleasure that comes natural for a fidget.

When I was 21, I got my first New York City job. Nothing in the world made me feel more proud than to be able to say that! In fact, even just going on the interview was enough of a thrill for me…

I’ve been announcing San Francisco Giants’ games for seven years and every game is a new experience; it’s more fun than I’d imagined. My first day of announcing was a totally out of body experience!

I feel like lately I have read quite a few accounts of agoraphobic middle-aged women. They don’t like to grocery shop or go to work or otherwise leave the house.

I spent the weekend with my daughter, Betty, and her family in Chevy Chase. Then Jim and I, at long last, got in the vehicle and drove home to Dublin, New Hampshire.

You live in a city like New York long enough and you learn to ignore things. The urban cacophony – sirens, horns, music, and that relentless commentary on you and the body you walk around in.

I have lived in two worlds – as a working actress in show business for 50 years, and as an animal-rights activist for nearly 40. Neither of these worlds have a high success rate, but I have succeeded in both.

My life’s headlines might read like a National Enquirer front page: KILLER BEES ATTACK SAILORS IN VENZUELAN JUNGLE; HURRICANE FLOYD SWAMPS COUPLE IN NEW JERSEY MARSHES.

When you’re the odd kid out at a small Catholic grammar school, you’re destined to get picked last for every kickball game. In my tiny class of 17, the odd kid out was me.

“Have you considered taking ESL?” The professor said it loudly in front of the class. I said, “Yeah. Ten years ago,” in perfect English, with a southern drawl.

So who says a 5 foot 1, pudgy redhead can’t go to Japan to become the next pop star singing in Japanese? Well, most people actually. Reactions to my venture were predominantly full of laughter.

Her name was Hong – at least that was the name I gave to the first bear I ever saw on one of China’s notorious “bile extraction” farms in 1993.

When I look back on my life there are a lot of instances where others told me how fearless and daring I was, but I always felt like I was just being me.

I’m often on the road, promoting the idea that even for the simplest things in life—like choosing ingredients for a cake or buying a pair of shoes—you can make either kind or cruel choices.

I am a child of the ’50s, which puts me in my 50s. I am lucky to have had a shot at several careers-and I’ve had a blast at all of them. After college, I worked my way from the selling floor to the buying office.

How does a flower dare to bloom a million times over in a million strange places to a million different faces? And how is it that I see you and me, abloom in every new face on the street?

The root word for courage comes from the French and means “heart.” True courage can only come when we are speaking out or taking action from the heart.

I look at my life in seasons and chapters. I was blessed by growing up in a nurturing, close, extended family, full of amazing personalities, strong and beautiful women and all kinds of characters.

“When you come over, we’ll go camping,” he says down the phone from 3,000 miles away. “I know this little island – we’ll drive north, then rent a canoe. An island just for the two of us – how does that sound?”

The traffic going up Route 81 was a little heavy but pride kept me on the highway and passionately directed. I was scared to death, an introvert flying down the road trying to function in an extrovert’s world.

Ask anybody and they will tell you that in the mid-1990′s, I was one committed, consumer protection bank examiner. I loved my job, yet I never worked terribly late for the pure enjoyment of it.

I made the decision to stop, many times. But I kept at it; the ritual of dying my hair. I have colored my hair since my twenties even before I started to gray.