Category: reflection
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Spring Chicken
It’s finally warm— between 75 and 82 during the day and in the fifties at night. I am in my happy place. I ordered some Muppet-like keychains to bring joy into the universe and my neighbor brought me a belated birthday gift that included a spring chicken in vibrant yellow.…
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Hometown Heroes
For the last few months, I’ve been working on a project with the Historical Society in Stewartsville, N.J., to transfer their hometown hero banner project into a commemorative book. The historical society held a launch party and book signing at their American Legion post on Saturday. Art director Gayle Hendricks…
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Memorial Day has me thinking…
Because I have an academic background in world history and two undergraduate degrees that include the study of French, certain family members have accused me of being unpatriotic and comment that I probably want to leave this country. These family members, of the MAGA variety, disowned me after my father’s…
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What Roses tell us about Growth
My birthday falls on Wednesday, and my rose bush is celebrating with about 50 roses all blooming at the same time. When we bought this house, Mrs. Beauchspies had three rose bushes, one of which my mom trimmed back to hard and killed our first year here. The second always…
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Less Permanent Black Out
Black Out Poetry has made a couple appearances in my life recently, once in R. Diskin Black’s workshop with the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group in late April and once while reading Urvi Thakker’s honors thesis. (Urvi is a senior at Lafayette College, where McKenna Graf is also a member of the Class of 2026. Congrats to…
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Professor of Story Preservation
My life, when reduced to a resume or a curriculum vitae, may appear eclectic, if you’re polite, and chaotic, if you’re not. My professional life has strong themes of journalism and non-profit communications and development, while my academic life has various experiences teaching, mentoring, and researching. I’ve worked in a…
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Learn Who People Are
As a college professor and a mentor, I frequently remind people that when networking, it’s important to ask your connections about themselves, their hobbies, and their general lives. This also applies to working relationships. Organic conversations, the kind that people remember and act on, involve genuine interest in learning who…
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Tips to jumpstart creativity
Tip One: Allow yourself some brain-dead time If you’ve been stressed or in a rut, find something that doesn’t require effort to lean you toward creative productivity. I’m not talking about spending all day on the couch or sleeping until 2 p.m., but watch a favorite movie or one that mirrors…
Parisian Phoenix Publishing 