Posts Tagged: m.j. pullen

A Lesson in Belonging

posted on 02/04/2009

I read today that a recent study (summary here) at the University of Kentucky strongly linked aggressive behavior with social rejection. In other words, people who are rejected socially are more likely to exhibit aggressive and violent behavior toward others. Well, duh, right? It may seem obvious, but this is apparently one of the more […]

Week 19: Your Baby Gets Superpowers

posted on 01/26/2009

One funny thing about getting pregnant is that suddenly your life is measured in weeks. It’s 40 weeks from start (well, before start, technically) to finish; and each week is brimming with developmental significance. Thanks to ever-improving technology, we know more and more about what happens with a developing fetus from week to week. So […]

Inaugural Blog

posted on 01/21/2009

Well, it’s not really my inaugural blog – it’s my blog about yesterday’s inauguration. I’m sure I am echoing the sentiments of many when I say this, but it’s astonishing to me how the peaceful fulfillment of the democratic process fills me with an increasing sense of awe, year after year. I’m a fairly worldly […]

Bookshelf Curriculum

posted on 01/12/2009

I figured it out the other day — I’m 33 years old, and I have spent almost exactly two-thirds of my life in school (at least part time). My first reaction as I write that sentence is to question the wisdom of all that higher education, and the next one is to try not to […]

Lessons from 2008

posted on 01/05/2009

On New Year’s Eve, a few friends converged on our house for a cozy evening of pizza and silly board games. It was wonderful. Earlier that morning, a colleague shared with me a NYE tradition she has: writing down things she wants to leave behind from the old year, and burning them in a bonfire. […]

Humbled by a "Hunter"

posted on 12/18/2008

Last night I had the privilege to see an incredible documentary about the extraordinary life of Simon Wiesenthal. Mr. Wiesenthal survived the Holocaust and imprisonment in several European concentration camps, and went on to become an infamous “Nazi Hunter,” who helped track down and capture Nazi war criminals responsible for the deaths of millions of […]

When Afraid to Drown, Dive in

posted on 12/09/2008

Why would someone who has a near-paralyzing fear of drowning (and hates being in a swimsuit) voluntarily choose to get in a pool every week? I ask myself this question often as I flip-flop my way through the locker room at Georgia State in my 5+ year-old basic black swimsuit, slowing slightly for a glance […]

A Season of Gratitude

posted on 11/13/2008

Thanksgiving was four days ago, and I finally feel like I might be ready to eat again! We had a wonderful holiday with family and food, a nice wrap-up to a busy but fulfilling few weeks (so busy and fulfilling, in fact, that I haven’t blogged in a month!). Since this is the season of […]

Happy Halloween!

posted on 10/31/2008

I love Halloween – it’s a day of fun and fantasy, when anyone can be anything, and everyone from the littlest kid to the most mature grownup can try on an alternate identity… just for fun (and candy). Somehow when we put on a costume or a mask, it gives us permission to cast aside […]

A Tough Homework Assignment

posted on 10/24/2008

In my Advanced Counseling Theories class, our homework assignment for this week was to answer this question: “Has the movement of your life so far been consistent with your values as you understand them?” Whew. It would be way easier to answer a question about Freud or Adler… something I could look up in a […]