Jan’s Blog Posts

Born in Hungry, Holocaust survivor Edith Eva Eger was captive at Auschwitz in May, 1944. She was a teenager, a talented gymnast and ballerina. She narrowly escaped rape when she was forced to dance “The Blue Danube” for Nazi physician Josef Mengele. Forced labor and starvation were ever-present foes. Eger was able to claw her… Continue reading Legacy Pearls, Legacy Burdens

No one is joyful 100% of the time, but people are drawn to others who appear happy. There is an electric energy surrounding joyfulness. Psychologist Willian von Hippel applies evolution to understanding happy behavior. He sees happiness as communicating competence. This explains why we may be reluctant to share any unhappy emotions with others; it… Continue reading Pearls of Cooperation

March is National Women’s History Month Every age has “inside” wrinkles! Human brains are quite wrinkled; folds in the brain exist to enlarge a surface area of the cortex to increase brainpower within a small space. Peeking inside a human brain, you would see about 1/3 of its surface; 2/3 is enfolded in wrinkles. If… Continue reading Pearls Inside Wrinkles

Pre-school education relates to education for retirees. What, you ask? Yes, pre-school/kindergarten education is a lubricant for older ages, including education for the senior set. You may know the book by minister Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. I recalled this book recently when I was a monitor at… Continue reading Does “Retirement” Need an Oil Change?

At the risk of no one reading beyond the second sentence, I have intriguing news for you. Your desire to be “comfortable” may hold you back from personal growth. Ouch. Keep reading. Researchers Kaitlin Woolley (Marketing Professor, Cornell University) and Ayelet Fishbach (Managerial Psychology Professor, University of Chicago) engaged 2100 individuals in experiments of personal… Continue reading Pearls Amidst Discomfort

“…we can’t see at the level of a microscope. If we could, we would see that a human is not a single organism…[Each person] by definition is a community of 50 trillion cells, so I’m not a single thing, I’m a community.” “Thought ‘energy’ can activate or inhibit the cell’s function-producing proteins via the mechanics… Continue reading Epigenetic Pearls

Punxsutawney Phil/Phyllis, that rascal groundhog that reportedly saw his/her/their shadow on February 2nd, gave us the Pennsylvania Dutch superstitious edict that there will be 6 more weeks of wintery weather. Nevermind, Phil/Phyllis is only “right” in predicting emerging spring 40% of the time. How “right” are you in assessing yourself? Do you have springtime energy… Continue reading Shadows and Pearls

Poet Marge Piercy captures the essence of worthwhile activities in To Be of Use: “…Hopi vases that held corn, / are put in museums / but you know they were made to be used. / The pitcher cries for water to carry / and a person for work that is real.” People thrive best when… Continue reading Small Difference Pearls

Rattlesnake Plant enfolds its brilliant leaves together at night but unfurls beauty every morning. The leaves-within-leaves plant reminds me of the hardy Hawaiian people. Although foreign takeover of their islands in 1983 attempted to separate Hawaiians from their sacred culture, there has been an ongoing momentum to unfurl genealogy stories and traditions orally. Ancestral land… Continue reading Pearls of Community Bonding

Are you flourishing or floundering? On January 1st I had several captive hours at an airport. I watched a lone duck swimming in circles in a courtyard pond. Was this duck flourishing in the sunlit zone or floundering somehow? Later the duck swam sideways, ditched repetitive circling, shook its feathers, and settled into cozy napping… Continue reading Flourishing Pearls