I was sitting in my living room this morning watching the Today Show when I heard Matt Lauer say that the 5 year-old being held hostage by a total stranger in an underground bunker is being reported as "unharmed." Really?

This child may not be physically harmed as of the...

I usually put on my headphones and hit the treadmill at 24 Hour Fitness or a trail leading up to the top of a local mountain. Today was different.

This time, I put my headphones on and began to walk with my dogs up a hill headed for the top...

I was driving down the road a few days ago and thinking of my past and past behaviors. I was a runaway wild teen in the '80s, a workaholic in the '90s and by the time the millennium hit, I was a devoted single mom and executive banker. Yet, I...

What I knew about multiple sclerosis (MS) before Dec. 8, 2011:

Whatever it was, it happened to older people. 

Rushing out the front door with my high school teenage daughter after fixing breakfast, walking the dogs, filling their silver dog bowls, and somehow finding time to put make up on...

I didn't know anything about multiple sclerosis (MS) 6.5 months ago. On Dec. 8, 2011 I got a crash course when my 18-year-old daughter had a severe sudden onset that paralyzed her on her left side, and left her blind in her left eye...

My daughter is going through a lot right now. She just turned 18, her boyfriend and first love is leaving to go to college on the other side of the country and we just moved from the place we had spent nearly 6 years in.

As her mom, I...

Kids are taking their own lives due to relentless verbal, emotional, and physical attacks by bullies because they have been labeled "different". Sure there have been bullies in schools, and even in the workplace, forever. The difference now is that you can't escape it by leaving school after having your...

When I think of great leaders it is interesting that, for the most part, current day so-called leaders don't really come to mind.

From spiritual leaders to top political and corporate figures, we have witnessed some pretty big cracks in integrity and character lately that have me wondering...Is it...

My job led to my being taken captive, held hostage, threatened with death, and taped with explosives. Sound familiar? I know about the realities of what the survivors of the recent Discovery Building Hostage crisis will now have to face.

Today I am a survivor, advocate, commentator and expert,...

Things have been tough for a lot of us these days. Money woes, political woes, and disasters causing our environment and economy to suffer even more makes us forget how to simply find positive and healthy ways to enjoy living.

I remember as a kid when our family of nine...

I was on a flight to Washington D.C. from San Diego a few days ago and beside me as we were preparing for take-off was a boy not more than 10-years-old. When we reached a high enough altitude and the announcement was made that we could use electronic devices, I...

I am incredibly inspired by music and the lyrics in song. Every time I hear the song by the Pretenders, "Stand by You," I think of my daughter. But today, as I was singing along, cruising down the highway, I found myself thinking also of all the survivors of violence...

Think about it. Pursuing all of your happiness and not settling for anything less than a fearless love. As I listened to Melissa Etheridge's new song...

Tiger Woods steps out to the podium today and the first thing I noticed was a piece of white paper in his hand. I thought to myself, "Oh no he didn't." Yep, he did.

To make it worse he referred to his notes, probably written by someone else hired to...

In an online article I read today, another girl has apparently taken her own life due to the unrelenting cyber, texting and school bullying she endured on a daily basis for months. Sure there have been bullies in schools, and even in the workplace, forever. The difference now is that...

I have been called the positive energy queen. But sometimes even a queen has a down day, usually alone and doesn't let anyone know. As a writer, I enjoy sharing the lessons in everyday life, even the ones that come on a very rare down day for the queen of...

Giving back is in my blood, but I didn't grasp just how deeply it is etched into who I am and how important it is as part of a successful business strategy until I became an entrepreneur.

It seems I have always possessed an entrepreneurial spirit. Growing up in a...

I hadn't been grabbed around the waist and kissed like that in so long I could hardly remember what warm sensual lips felt like on mine. I loved every second of it but still something inside of me rang as loud and clear as the three-o-clock whistle on a Friday...

Business mistake #1: Don't have a strategic business plan. I learned this the hard way when I was dipping my toes into the entrepreneurial pond for the very first time. Now that it is almost 2010, the economy is showing at least some signs of light at the end of...

The reminder on my TV had been set for a week. My daughter and I were settling in for our favorite show premiering on Thursday night and ready for two hours of Grey's Anatomy drama.

Last season they introduced us to a new character, Owen -- a doctor suffering from...