Rethinking Rich

November 22, 2011

by Kim Childs, CPPC At its worst, this recession has left countless people homeless, jobless, hungry, angry and injured. At best, it’s led many Americans to cut up their credit cards and cut out unnecessary spending. Others are voluntarily simplifying their lives, reducing consumption, sharing resources with neighbors, and finding new value in the so-called “simple” pleasures of a not-so-big life. I say “Amen” to that. I know a lot of people with very rich lives and small bank balances,…


by Kim Childs, CPPC It was 7:05 a.m. on Thanksgiving eve, 1997. I was anchoring a public radio newscast in Newark, New Jersey, as I’d done every morning for months, when the music host left the studio to grab more CDs. Alone with the microphone and a million listeners, I became aware of a sinister thought. It told me that I was about to blurt something outrageous over the air. I pushed down this thought and kept reading, “Mayor Giuliani…


Childless by Choice

October 13, 2011

by Kim Childs, CPPC I love children. I just never felt the desire to have any of my own. Well, maybe for a fleeting moment. There is, after all, a certain sweetness in thinking about creating another person with someone you love and seeing the two of you reflected in that child. But I didn’t marry until my mid-40s, and I know that I currently do not have the patience, selflessness, or energy that it takes to raise a child…


No Accident

September 19, 2011

by Kim Childs, CPPC Three years ago today I was stopped at a red light near Harvard Square on a sunny afternoon when it hit me. A Chrysler minivan, to be precise. A traveling salesman from Cleveland, oblivious to the stopped cars in front of him, was talking on his cell phone as he plowed right into my little Corolla. Today, I’m actually kind of grateful to him. The rear-end collision left me with whiplash, and a frozen shoulder that…


by Kim Childs, CPPC I used to think cities were where it’s at.  My European travels and my years in Philadelphia, London and New York found me gaping at skyscrapers, hitting hot clubs and trendy restaurants, and finding endless entertainment in the tapestry of skin tones, hairstyles, languages, and fashions around me. Having grown up on Cape Cod, I was hungry for the thrills of city life. But I started to fall out of love with cities in my late-30s,…


by Kim Childs, CPPC Back when I was single, I created a few personal profiles for online dating sites. When asked to name my religion, I wrote "Kindness." It sounded kinda cute at the time, but it’s also what I truly believe in and try to practice. Kindness touches the soul, or at least my soul, and connects us all on such a primal level. Raised as a Christian, I knew all about the Golden Rule of doing unto others…


by Kim Childs, CPPC No, this post is not about Star Trek, although I admire the show and the committed fan base. It's about spaciousness, the thing I've been embracing these days. Spacious days, in fact, where I have very few things on the calendar and gorgeous swaths of unstructured, unscheduled time to enjoy. As I approach middle age (okay, chronologically I'm there at 48, but mentally I'm still thirty-something), I find that I need more time to...just...be. I didn't…