First Person Singular by Wendy Braitman

Happy Chinese New Year

And a happy weekend!

Illustration by Jean Julien

A Banana a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

I’m committed to a daily banana which I put into my fruit-filled smoothie. And, it’s a good excuse to use this fun photo by Marion Luttenberger.

Speaking of delicious food – only 2 days left to enter our contest for the chance to win Valentines chocolate by Wild Ophelia.

What Are Your Buffers to Loneliness?

My partial list:

Egyptian-cotton sheets
Premium cable TV
Daily hard copy of NY Times delivered to my door (which is why I can’t quit it)
Rose, the dog!!!!!!
Remembering to be grateful

Not Pretty in Pink

I’m fighting an old-fashioned stomach bug. (That will teach me to stick my hand in a toddler’s mouth who has diarrhea.) Ouch. I hope to be on the mend tomorrow.

Update: Happily, it was only a 24-hour bug and I’m feeling back in the pink today. Thanks for your well wishes.

Artwork by Sarah Illenberger

Peak Experiences

Over the weekend I was in a perfectly fine mood, until hearing an NPR interview with Jennifer Senior who has just written a book about having kids, All Joy and No Fun. Senior also writes for New York Magazine, one of my favorite periodicals, and she’s smart, funny and charming. Even so, I was fuming. The conversation went off the rails for me when Senior started talking about parenting as an “unrivaled” joy. I started thinking about my moments of unrivaled joy which include eating paella home-cooked on a Tuscan grill under the stars in Sonoma, listening to Yo-Yo Ma perform live from the 6th row-orchestra, laughing uncontrollably over nothing really with my dear friend, William, and every once in a while, even prayer. What comes to mind for you?

Cartoon in The New Yorker by Michael Crawford

End of Week Reflection

I love this quote from Edith Wharton:
”There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that receives it.”

Thanks to you all for being my inspiration. Check out our contest and have a great weekend!

Illustration by Sine Jensen

What’s For Dinner?

Rummaging around in my freezer, I remembered the Bolognese sauce I’d cooked last month and stowed away for a night like this. I’m so excited. It’s defrosting as I write this. I’ll be serving it over a plate of spaghetti tossed with Parmigiano-Reggiano. My all time favorite meal.

Photo by Aaron Tilley

Work It!

Illustration by Marc Johns

Contest: What Will You Give Yourself on Valentines Day?

I’ve had my share of pity parties on Valentines Day (even when romantically involved), but this year is going to be different. FPS is launching a contest in which you win by self-nurturing.
To enter, answer the question, What will you give yourself on Valentines Day? This can be something tangible or metaphysical, grand or everyday. The prize is artisanal chocolate, and for 2/14/14, we’ll be thinking outside the box with a 5-bar gift pack from Wild Ophelia created by Katrina Markoff, founder of Vosges Haut-Chocolat.

Submit your entry using the Comments section. Include your first name. If you win, we’ll email for your U.S. shipping address and phone number. By submitting you’ll become an FPS subscriber (if you’re not already). Please submit only one idea per entry, though feel free to enter as often as you like. Deadline is February 1, 2014.

Wild Ophelia Valentines Day bars are available at Walgreens.

We Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident

from a 1964 interview with Martin Luther King, Jr. published in Playboy Magazine

“I never will forget a moment in Birmingham when a white policeman accosted a little Negro girl, seven or eight years old, who was walking in a demonstration with her mother. “What do you want?” the policeman asked her gruffly, and the little girl looked him straight in the eye and answered, “Fee-dom.” She couldn’t even pronounce it, but she knew. It was beautiful! Many times when I have been in sorely trying situations, the memory of that little one has come into my mind, and has buoyed me.

Similarly, not long ago, I toured in eight communities of the state of Mississippi. And I have carried with me ever since a visual image of the penniless and the unlettered, and of the expressions on their faces—of deep and courageous determination to cast off the imprint of the past and become free people. I welcome the opportunity to be a part of this great drama, for it is a drama that will determine America’s destiny. If the problem is not solved, America will be on the road to its self-destruction. But if it is solved, America will just as surely be on the high road to the fulfillment of the founding fathers’ dream, when they wrote: “We hold these truths to be self evident.…”