Ann Elizabeth Grace, Author

“Trust yourself, and you will know how to live.”

–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What a surprise to move to New York, then experience my first earthquake, followed by Hurricane Irene! Dan and I were evacuated from our house on Saturday morning, August 27th, as Irene rattled up the coast. The night before, we had watched our neighbors haul away boats and board up windows. Police were cruising through the neighborhood belting mandatory evacuation orders through bullhorns. Stores were bursting with people scrambling to buy water, batteries, and non-perishable foods.

On Saturday, we headed to stay with friends who live in a more protected house than ours. By then, Irene had downgraded in our area to a tropical storm. The sky was gray and leaden during the day. That night, something eerie and electric fizzed in the air as I drifted to sleep.  Read more…

Aaahh, transition. My husband and I have moved from China to New York. I’ve bounced around a great deal over the past decade, but this time an extra adjustment is in the mix. Upon returning to the U.S., I had hernia surgery. A minor event, in the grand scheme…but the ordeal was taxing, and it taught me a few things. Read below for lessons from my hernia!

Lesson 1: If something is amiss, investigate. For an entire year, I noticed a bulge developing in the lower right side of my abdomen. And I ignored it. My excuse was this: Given our international flux, going to the doctor just seemed like too much work. Finally, in Beijing, I decided to get it checked out. There was a brief scare in which the doctor surmised something more serious than a hernia was growing. Thankfully that turned out not to be the case, and the path to surgery was clear.  Read more…

Among my greatest joys of living in Beijing has been the opportunity to volunteer for a terrific organization: United Foundation for Children’s Health. UFCH improves healthcare access for orphans and impoverished children in China. The love and resilience of the kids, along with the devotion of the caregivers, doctors, and UFCH team, are truly inspiring.

Below is an excerpt from the website:

In China today there are an estimated 820,000 orphans. Many of these children are abandoned at birth once their parents discover they suffer from a congenital defect. Although many of these defects are treatable, often the lack of information and/or high medical costs result in abandonment. These children will be sent to live in orphanages that do not receive funds to cover the cost of these needed surgeries.

The average orphanage receives roughly $30 a month per child to cover food, shelter, clothing, caregivers’ salary and medical costs. Life-saving surgeries just cannot be afforded. According to the China adoption guidelines, only children who have received their needed surgeries may be put up for adoption. Most of these children will never have the opportunity for the medical care they so desperately need and will have no hope of finding a family.

UFCH is an organization of caring people committed to doing our very best to improve access to healthcare for these children. After being in this field for nine years, we can definitively say that receiving the needed medical care not only saves that child’s life, but also gives her a real chance at a future.

If you'd like to learn more, visit www.unitedfoundation.org

A few days ago I was a guest on Talkbox, a talk show on Beijing radio’s bilingual station AM774. Chloe (the host), Holly (the cohost), and I covered a lot of ground…from the struggles facing Chinese and American 20somethings, to finding your calling, to Forest Gump!

Click here to listen: May 19th Talkbox Radio Show

**When you visit the web page, look to the box on the right side. Scroll through the shows and click on the May 19th, 2011 episode titled “Confusion to Clarity.” Just let me know if you have any trouble tuning in.

On Monday, I gave a presentation called Overcoming the Quarterlife Crisis. The quarterlife crisis is the period of time in our 20s, and often 30s, during which we feel lost, confused, and overwhelmed by the question: “What do you want to do with your life?” We may look around at our peers and feel that we just don’t measure up. Perhaps you are in the midst of your own struggles, or know someone who is.

I take seriously the emotional stress of the quarterlife crisis, especially after having lived through it myself. I also know its powerfully transformative effects. The transformation occurs when we are willing to be patient with the process, dig deeply within ourselves for answers, and make step-by-step choices based on our true desires.

The workshop was, for me, uplifting. I learned a great deal from the participants and felt deeply inspired by their open minds and hearts. For a sample of the evening, see below for 10 tips I discussed for getting through this challenging life phase.  Read more…

Last night, my husband and I were reading before bed. I noticed him set down Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now and sink deep into concentration. The passages had visibly affected him.

“Penny for your thoughts?” I asked.

“I’m thinking about quieting my mind,” he said.

A pause. Then his oxymoron clicked, and we started to laugh. Thinking about quieting the mind. How relatable! The busy nature of mind is such that we often spend more time trying to tame it than actually doing so. 

I know this from personal experience. I’ve been meditating daily for a decade yet still find myself swept down the wild rapids of thought. But practice does help. Meditation is like exercise. The more you do it, the more natural it gets. Read more…

The other morning, I awoke feeling uneasy. I’d just emerged from a dream in which I was taunted for being less successful than someone else. The “taunters” reveled in comparing me negatively to others. I kept trying to escape by darting to a bright, childlike playland, but couldn’t get away.

Upon reflection, I saw that each aspect of my dream represented a part of myself. The person more accomplished than me symbolized an idealized image of success. The taunters were my choir of inner critics who push me to improve through harsh assessments. (Yep, still a recovering perfectionist!) The playland was the safe haven I seek—where I’m free to be myself, no upgrades needed.

Writing Confusion to Clarity taught me that I'm not the only 20something who occasionally compares myself to others. Far from it. Read more…

Last weekend I was a guest speaker for a group of young Chinese women. They’re preparing to apply to college, and their leader—an exceptional woman—asked me to help inspire their growth in the interim.

The topic of the workshop was “Thinking Outside the Box.” One objective was to explore activities the girls could pursue to boost their personal development and college apps. We dug into interests that appeared unrelated (i.e. science and music), and looked for ways to combine them in unique projects. We pulled back the curtain on perceived obstacles, reasons why we think something is not possible, and brainstormed alternate routes to success.  Read more…

Next morning’s adventure led us east on a bullet train to the 4,000-year-old city of Luoyang, in Henan Province. It was a mass of humanity. A friendly Kentucky Fried Chicken employee we met helped us understand the true scale of China’s cities. He told us about his “small” hometown—of only four million people! Luoyang’s traffic was bonkers. One of our drivers changed lanes by swerving across the dividing line into oncoming cars.

In Luoyang we had another animated twentysomething guide. Dong Dong was a walking encyclopedia. He taught us about everything from the I Ching to the sociological effects of China’s one-child policy. We drove to Longmen Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. These are Buddhist caves into which 1,300-1,500-year-old statues are carved. I felt powerful energy emanating from the stones, amplified by the beautiful river flowing alongside them.  Read more…