Funny Bone

When I was a little girl, I used to suck my thumb on my purple and white checked Raggedy Ann blanket. I could not fall asleep without holding it against my cheek. Throw me where you would, all I needed was that blanket. No kiss goodnight necessary, just the blanket.

That blanket lasted until I was eighteen years old, the thumb-sucking stopped when I was three. The moment I threw it out, and shed a tear, I snuck into my sister's room and found its replacement, a blue and red checkered bigger blanket that I sleep with to this day. It is the only thing I own that I do not share with my kids, although every now and then, when they're sick, I let them fall asleep with it.

When I go to conferences, I take Sofia's security blanket to have a piece of my kids with me at all times. Sleeping alone in hotel rooms can be a liberating experience, but it's nice to have a little bit of home with me wherever I go.

Sometimes all it takes is a stare, a sentence, a movement or a text message to change your life. Other times it takes a lifetime to bring about change. Depends on the person, depends on you.

You can change your hair, your wardrobe, your car, your house and the songs on your laptop, or you can think long and hard about why you are dissatisfied with your life. Sometimes people grasp onto another person as a tool to give them the strength to change, and they idealize this person as the motivation for this incredible change. Before doing this, look in the mirror and realize that you are the change you are trying to be..not that other person.

Human beings have an enormous capacity to love unconditionally, but so many times we forget to love ourselves.

At some point in the middle of the night, Sofia Madyson climbed into bed with me. When I awoke out of a dead sleep and turned over, I found curls. I wrapped that sleeping girl in my blanket and snuggled her up.