What is the measure of a truly meaningful, beneficial life experience? Is swimming 50 laps better for your health than swimming 40 laps? Is having 30 friends come to a party better than having 3 close friends whom you can trust with your most vulnerable feelings? Is working at a job that your parents and… Read more »
Posts By: Ellie Dolgin
The Dangers of Wanting to Be Loved
I am a reasonable person. I have good judgment and can read a situation really well. I am secure and well-adjusted, considerate and articulate. But there is one area that overrides my trust in my intuition, and it does so without seeking permission from my otherwise mature, well-functioning mind. That is when I act out… Read more »
Puddle Jumpers
Puddles and kids go well together. Jumping, skipping, and splashing in puddles is a child’s domain. Kids seek them out, take a running start and feel the sensual pleasure of them, splashing for the sheer glee of it. Do you remember when it was such fun to stomp on water and watch it disperse in… Read more »
Empathy and Narcissism
Our Thanksgiving was lively and rich with family. Kids running around, dogs misbehaving, food heated and served in abundance. But it was particularly intense this year. Within the past few months a close family member had a recurrence of a disease, another was raw from a divorce in progress and my daughter came with her… Read more »
The Naked Truth
Moms can be so annoying! You have lived with their idiosyncrasies your whole life and maybe they haven’t changed. In some cases they have gotten more glaring. And how about those times when you catch yourself acting and sounding just like your mom, saying the things that you have tried to run away from but… Read more »
The Bagel Shop
Sitting in a bagel shop in the upper east side of Manhattan enjoying my bagel and coffee I noticed a homeless man at an adjacent table asking people for money. A well-dressed woman reached into her pocket and handed him a quarter. A quarter! As he stared at the coin in his palm something got… Read more »
Energy Matters
Combine traveling for two weeks with not eating or sleeping well and emotional stress and it happened…I got a cold. Fever, cough, sneezing…the works. In my hours of drinking hot water with lemon and honey what I noticed most was how low my energy was. Every time I passed a couch I had to lay… Read more »
The Unpublished Book
I spent three years writing a book. It was a memoir about a particular twenty years of my life. Sixty thousand words later I started sending it out to agents for representation. But after I sent out each submission I found myself hoping that the agent wouldn’t pick it up. A few months ago I… Read more »
Are We Really Being Nice?
My friend told me about how she got into a disagreement with a client and the “nice person” in her took over and she offered all of the client’s money back. It was an important payment to her and the conclusion about who was right was dubious. I started thinking about what exactly it means… Read more »
Burgers and Buns
Swaying with the rhythmic rocking of the train from New York City to Long Island, I witnessed the city morph into industrial buildings, then religious sanctuaries, and finally greenery and open sky. During the hour-long ride, my eyes casually passed over two posters on the wall. They were strategically placed by the marketing company just… Read more »