• Columnists

Cari Shane Parven, Writer

COLUMN = PARENTING

Based in the Washington, DC, area, Cari Shane Parven, a former television and radio reporter, writes for The Washington Post, Cooking Light, The Washington Examiner, Fromer’s Budget Travel, MYBusiness Magazine, Swimmer, Maryland-Life, Home & Design and more. She is also a contributing essayist in the new anthology, “Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex, and Work in Our 40s.”

Her dream as a child was to be like Jane Goodall sitting in the forest among the chimps, or Margaret Mead observing the natives in Samoa. As a mother of three and wife to one, she can do neither, so instead she blends into the culture around her and writes about what she sees. Her observations can be found in her blogs, “Inside the Beltway and Under the Radar” and “Keepin’ It Real,” where she writes about mental health issues for Gannet’s WUSA-TV. Parven is a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post and the “Friendship Examiner” for examiner.com.

Before her return to print journalism five years ago, Parven was in front of the camera working as a television reporter and weekend anchor at the NBC affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut. Prior to that, she was a features reporter for the ABC affiliate in the Roanoke/Lynchburg, Virginia, market, a news writer for Philadelphia’s Fox station, and a weekend anchor at the NBC affiliate in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Parven began her broadcast career in radio in Poughkeepsie, New York, and worked for many years as a radio anchor and reporter in Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut. Her print career began at The Poughkeepsie Journal in New York.

In the 90s, Parven ran a successful media-tour company representing a variety of well-known national clients, including Hunts, General Foods, Accutane, and TJ Maxx. Parven not only created the media campaigns for her clients, placing their products on national and local news programs, but also acted as spokesperson for several of her national media campaigns.

A graduate of Vassar College and a Manhattan native, Parven currently lives in Potomac, Maryland. She is writing her first novel, “A Winter’s Spring.”

Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading.”

– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

The awakening to the mystery of life is a revolutionary event; in it an old world is destroyed so that a new and better one may take its place.”

– J.J. Van Der Leeuw, The Conquest of Illusion

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

– Magical

Who cares if my glass is half empty or half full; I still have something to drink.”

– Optimism rules

As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

– Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

By your stumbling the world is perfected.”

– Sri Aurobindo

We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.”

– General Omar Bradley

Many people prefer to play it safe when it comes to business matters. Are you willing to take risks in the pursuit of entrepreneurial success?”

– Steven Schussler

Entrepreneurs are willing to roll the dice with their money or reputation on the line in support of an idea or enterprise.”

– Victor Kiam

Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible.”

– Lord Chesterfield

You must have chaos within you, to create a dancing star.”

– Frederic Nietzsche

If it isn’t good, let it die. If it doesn’t die, make it good.”

– Ajahn Chah

The biggest flaw in our existing theory of capitalism lies in its misrepresentation of human nature.”

– Muhammad Yunus

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

– Robert Frost

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. 
Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.”

– Mary Jean Irion

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

– Albert Einstein

Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.”

– E.B. White

A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.”

– Albert Schweitzer

Do you believe it is important to give back some portion of your wealth to support charitable causes?”

– Steven Schussler

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”

– Helen Keller

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

– Charles R. Swindoll

Entrepreneurs willingly assume responsibility for the success or failure of a venture and are answerable for all its facets.”

– Victor Kiam

The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Chuck E. Cheese's

The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.”

– Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court justice

A truly forgiving person is someone who experiences all the anger merited by injustice and still acts with fairness and compassion.”

– Martha Beck

The journey is the reward.”

– Greg Norman

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

That which grows fast withers as rapidly; that which grows slowly endures.”

– J.G. Holland, novelist

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

– Jimi Hendrix

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in your room.”

– A wisdomism

Our deepest wishes are whispers of our authentic selves. We must learn to respect them. We must learn to listen.”

– Sarah Ban Breathnach

If you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.”

– Oprah Winfrey

You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it.”

– Goldie Hawn

That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.”

– Henry David Thoreau

No longer talk at all about the kind of man a good man ought to be, but be such.”

– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.”

– Bob Dylan

4oz tequila + 1oz TripleSec + 2oz lime juice + 1oz simple syrup (sugar=water), 1 cup crushed ice. Shake + dance around the kitchen.

– Avenida Margarita

It is possible to fail in many ways…while to succeed is possible only in one way.”

– Aristotle

Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth. Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.”

– Noela Evans

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!”

– Andrew Carnegie

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”

– Audre Lorde

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

– Thomas Edison

Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences.”

– J.K. Rowling

If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.”

– Anna Quindlen

Traveling is one way of lengthening life, at least in appearance.”

– Benjamin Franklin

Whosoever knows how to fight well is not angry. Whosoever knows how to conquer enemies does not fight them.”

– Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

When I dare to be powerful—to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

– Audre Lorde

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

– Eckhart Tolle

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”

– Bruce Lee

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

– John Quincy Adams