Laura Gassner Otting 
Do you want a peaceful home? For the past four years, my family has held a family meeting each and every weekend. Sometimes it’s in-depth, gathered around the kitchen table unpacking a deep and difficult problem, sometimes it’s fast and furious, in an airport lounge waiting to come back from a trip and just doing … Read more
It’s always 4:30 am. We’ve all done it. We’ve all looked at the travel website, considered the long list of flight options, and thought, “Well, if I take the 6:00 am flight, it will be a rough morning, but at least I’ll be on the beach by lunchtime…” Most of us, noting that the ass-crack-o-dawn … Read more
Oprah, can you hear me? Today I had a rude awakening morning. You’ve had these mornings, too. They are the ones where you are thrashing about in one of those nightmares that hides as a dream, and then suddenly — bam! — you bolt upright in your bed, blinking away the sleep, trying to piece … Read more
What’s your favorite Christmas ornament? When I was a kid, growing up Jewish, I adored the shiny, matching ornaments of the department store trees, twinkling with the glow of the holidays. This one was all silver! That one was all gold! I assumed this was how anyone and everyone would want to decorate their tree. … Read more
Ladies, I beg of you, stop being too nice. (Not a political post, just a political setting.) At the end of the Democratic debate last night, Judy Woodruff asked the candidates if there was a candidate on the stage to whom they’d give a gift, or from whom they’d ask forgiveness. The men talked about … Read more
I dedicated my book, Limitless, to one of my mentors, Arnie Miller, who taught me to bring everything I am to everything I do. Why? Because it’s not just about not getting it wrong. We have to make sure we are getting it right. He was the toughest boss I’m so … Read more
This post was originally published on Facebook the day after the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013. Some of the facts (like additional undetonated bombs) turned out to prove false, and some (like me running in 2014) turned out to be true. The sentiment remains intact as ever. On the Boston Marathon Bombing of 2013: Hi … Read more
This past weekend I climbed Everest. But not really. I climbed Mt. Stratton 17 times to get to a total of 29,029 feet of accumulated elevation, the height of Mt. Everest. “What, LGO, that’s crazy! How did I not even know you were doing this? I’d think you’d be posting about training and preparation and … Read more
It’s not the falling down that shows you who you are; it’s the getting up. This morning I woke to a Facebook memory that six years ago I ran a PR in a half marathon. I’d taken up running, did too much too soon, and got all kinds of injured. It became a huge frustration … Read more
Are you “Crushing It!?!” (Read that question with an in-your-face, temple vein pulsing instafluencer rage, preferably standing in front of a rented jet and someone else’s car.) The largest looming threat to the prickly relationship between my advancing dotage and my tenuous hold on good health happens almost daily. It is the moment when some … Read more