Caryn Sullivan's Blog, page 5

Enduring Lessons in Resiliency and Empowerment

This piece originally appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on January 20, 2019. Have you discovered your life’s purpose? Gloria Perez found hers early in life. Perez spent 10 years in a two-parent family committed to faith, education, and the community. Then her father died of cancer. As a young girl, she witnessed the struggles of…

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Bending, Blending and Setting Boundaries for an Even Better Year

This piece originally appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on January 6, 2019. We’re days into a new year but I’m still thinking about the one we left behind. December was a whirlwind month, filled with fun, obligations, cheer, reverence, and stress. While it’s still fresh, I’m reflecting on what worked, what didn’t work,…

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Dear Kyle, Thanks for Making the World a Better Place

This piece originally appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on December 23, 2018. Have you seen the “Dear Kyle” video? It’s a real tearjerker. You won’t find it on Netflix. But you may have seen it online. I’m referring to the video about Kyle Rudolph, the tight end nominated by the for the Walter Payton…

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Wings for Widows: Offering a Better Way to Navigate the Aftermath of a Loss

This column originally appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on December 9, 2018.   Word came by phone, delivered by a stranger I never did meet. Nine years ago, my husband, the father of four, died in a hospital emergency room after efforts to coax his heart back into service fell short. In an…

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Embracing Our Expiration Date

This piece originally appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on November 22, 2018. We’re born with an expiration date. Yet, it’s not the nature of our culture for us to speak much about the inevitable. Until it smacks us in the face. Flames claim homes. Cars collide. Cancer visits. Regardless of what event shepherds…

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Lessons from Military Life and Its Transitions

This piece originally appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on November 11, 2018. Teresa graduated from high school with no direction. When she joined the Navy, she had never been anywhere, done anything, or worked in any way. She quickly discovered the military is more than a job – it’s a way of life.…

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REALTORS® Stepping Forward and Living the “Better” Choice

It was dark and rainy and Saturday morning to boot. My husband, the CEO of Minnesota REALTORS®, had signed us up to participate in the REALTORS® Relief Run, held in conjunction with the National Association of REALTORS annual meeting. Just a day earlier I would have tried to talk Chris out of attending, leveraging his…

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We can be better. If we choose.

This piece originally appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on November 1, 2018. As I was born to a Jewish mother and Catholic father, it feels poetic that a Catholic priest shared a Jewish man’s life-changing wisdom with me nearly a decade ago. I was in a dark place, trying to make sense of…

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From Surviving to Thriving

This piece originally appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on October 14, 2018. We all accumulate scars in life, some more penetrating than others. How – and why — do some people falter, some survive, and yet others thrive? That question so intrigued Emma J. Bell that she stepped away from a judgeship to…

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Autism, Mothers and the Great Gift of Planning

This piece originally appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on May 13, 2018.   One in 42. That was the prevalence of autism in 8-year-old Minnesotans in 2014, the CDC recently reported, compared to one in 59 nationally.   So for an awful lot of moms, “our day” triggers a constellation of emotions: sadness,…

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