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Tag: Coach Koenig

Coach Koenig

I am a Firewalker… Really

Within a matter of hours, I would take a step I once thought impossible. The master firewalker was about to prepare me and a roomful of other courageous and anxious souls to walk across a bed of hot coals on our bare feet. “What are the fears that have held you back?”  She asked. Now I was not only going to have to worry about a trip to the emergency room, I should think about a lifetime of fears?  I reflected on a huge host of insecurities that had blocked me from taking that first, or that next step, or
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Waking Up About Sleep

When I was a girl, I’d sometimes go to bed in my clothes just so I wouldn’t waste any time getting a start on the next day. For much of my life, a shortage of sleep silently signified I was half as hardworking as my German mother of eight. As a young mom of two under two, stressed by building my fledgling law practice and struggling in my marriage, sleep took a back seat to my beliefs about survival and success. Out of touch with both my body and my burnout, I pushed through my days oblivious to my exhaustion
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Remembering Angel

She carefully leaned into the microphone, her voice vulnerable with anticipation. Separated from her siblings, in and out of countless schools, she shared how she was packed up without warning and taken to a stranger’s house. How the second home, the one that followed the emergency one, was not a refuge but a haven for abuse. How she didn’t know if she would ever have a relationship with either of her parents again. As I examined her tiny frame and dark eyes I couldn’t discern Angel’s age. She spoke of years of being of repeatedly losing the few new friends
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Money Secrets

As a young wife many years ago, my husband was suspicious about my spending. In an effort to defend, I began reporting my use of cash. Throughout each month I recorded my daily purchases on a small tablet:               5/3  Lipstick                 $2               5/7  Pantyhose            $3               5/8  Lunch                   $4 At the end of the month I silently placed the list atop his dresser. Whether it was that my husband feared he could not trust me or I feared that he didn’t,
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The Possibility of Improv

Milling about were mostly millennial men half my age or maybe a third. When I signed up, I didn’t remember why people ask friends to take classes with them. It’s to not feel silly showing up at a beginner improv workshop at the local comedy club on a Sunday morning. Once a straight A student, I felt like an “F” was a distinct possibility for this course. My hard work and homework got me through lots of life. But on the empty black stage there would be no previous preparation, no planning. For years I’ve tried to take myself less
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Ending Love

Things end. Some endings bring relief. Some leave us lost. I feel relief at endings like time in the dentist’s chair, a successful surgery for my sister, or a flight taking me home to Omaha. I feel lost when relationships with those I love end because so much of who I am is connected to the people with whom I work and play. People like Fred who died last Friday. Fred the drama queen poet and next door neighbor who watched my children go from Montessori to college. Fred the matchmaker who brought John and me together and then officiated
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At My End

Martin was blown away by Gina’s exuberance when they met on campus for the first time.  Her smile and boundless evoked enough courage in him to invite her to a baseball game 9 years and three children ago. On this sunny April afternoon, Martin, an easy going and patient man, quietly explained to his attorney why he was contemplating leaving his extraordinary wife of almost a decade. Gina was a brilliant web designer who started her own business.  A passionate lover.  A dedicated mom who organized everything from summer camp schedules to the socks in the sock drawer. “I just
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Updated Status: Loved

It’s tax time. Time for the annual review of my status. Time to once again remember that I am not married. There are a lot of boxes to check in life. At my doctor’s office. On my Facebook page. For my financial advisor.  After ruling out the “Married” option and while choosing from among “Divorced,” “Widowed,” and “Single” I always wonder why “All of the above” isn’t a choice. My ego has driven much of my desire to keep a tight grip on a status that impressed. When as a young lawyer I met someone for the first time, I
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Sunny Detox

My head encased in a flurry of bright yellow yarn and wearing a giant yellow dress retrieved from the prop box, I stepped onto the platform as the emcee for talent night. As “Sunny”, I held the toy microphone and appeared a cross between adorable and absurd. Unable to discern any talent of my own, I had volunteered as the master of ceremonies to celebrate concluding a week of an intense cleanse of mind and body. Since our arrival, we had eaten small plates of raw vegetables for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with the exception of three days when we
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Trek Up the Tower

I was sweating. I clung to the handrail, lugging each leg up the next step. My head down, my chest heaving as I struggled to breathe, I heard someone shout “Only 7 more flights!” I wanted to cry. In the midst of an exuberant office holiday party I had I declared “I’m in” with more enthusiasm than thoughtful consideration when our paralegal Wendi invited me to trek up the tower. Saying yes without asking a single question was my first mistake. I thought I was signing up to climb 27 flights of stairs. I neglected to notice that the tallest
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