Highway Fear

Kathryn Crawford Saxer A Little Kindness

I have a friend who is afraid of highways. She loses sleep if she knows she is going to have to drive on one. Loses weight. Organizes her life to avoid them. I respect deep-seated fears and don’t tend to mess with them. I did wonder, though, how this fear was making her life smaller. So we came up with a plan. Our kids were taking swimming lessons together this summer at a pool most easily accessed by highway. We …

Mess Up Mommy

Kathryn Crawford Saxer A Little Kindness

I’m coaching my 6-year-old daughter’s soccer team. This is despite having played only a year of JV soccer in middle school and losing every game. My parents came to a game and cheered the wrong girl. Anyway, the league needed coaches. How hard could it be? Taking my new soccer coaching responsibilities very seriously, I crafted a careful email to my players’ parents highlighting the date and time of our first practice in yellow: Tuesday, September 4 at 5:30. Without …

My Own Project

Kathryn Crawford Saxer Self Care

A friend told me about visiting a favorite aunt. This aunt had been unhappily overweight most of her adult life and now, at 70, is trim and healthy. My friend exclaimed over the change and the aunt said: “You know, I finally made myself my own project.” I had to sit back and roll those words over in my heart. Helping my clients be their own projects is what I do as a professional coach. Most of us spend our …