Kristen Broady

“Whose permission are you waiting for before you move into your purpose?”
-Zina Jaque

“I don't believe that life is supposed to make you feel good, or to make you feel miserable either. Life is just supposed to make you feel.”
-Gloria Naylor

“You must live life with the full knowledge that your actions will remain. We are creatures of consequence.”
-Zadie Smith

“This is the shadow of hope. Knowing that we may never see the realization of our dreams, and yet still showing up.”
-Austin Channing Brown

“In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.”
-Thurgood Marshall

Psychology says adults who have no close friends aren't necessarily introverted or antisocial. Many of them learned in childhood that vulnerability gets punished, and they built a life that perfectly ... The people who appear most self-sufficient often aren't choosing independence — they're running a defense strategy they learned before they were old enough to name it.

This article makes good points about how and why some adults have fewer close friends. Feeling safe being vulnerable (or not) starts in childhood.
geediting.com/j-a-psycholo...

“Memories and loneliness look backward, fear looks around,
but faith always looks forward.”
-E. Lynn Harris

“Hold your head high, stick your chest out. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes. Keep hope alive.”
RIP Jesse Jackson

We often assume that before we step into a new opportunity, we have to be confident, certain & polished. But Pearl Cleage says that’s not required, that our instinct to over-explain & over-negotiate with ourselves is unnecessary. Sometimes the biggest obstacle is disbelief in our capabilities.

Join the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s virtual event tomorrow at 11 AM CT — Amenities and Office Vacancy Rates: What Really Draws Workers Back to the Office?

A timely look at how workplace features, not just mandates, impact office demand in the post-pandemic era.

web.cvent.com/event/27dd78...

“Loneliness is black coffee and late-night television; solitude is herb tea and soft music. Solitude, quality solitude, is an assertion of self-worth, because only in the stillness can we hear the truth of our own unique voices.”
-Pearl Cleage

“It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.”
-Benjamin E. Mays

“Everyone has a potential for greatness.”
—Khalil Gibran Muhammad

“Presumption should never make us neglect that which appears easy to us, nor despair make us lose courage at the sight of difficulties.”
–Benjamin Banneker

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.”
-Colin Powell

"Where there is no vision, there is no hope."
- George Washington Carver

“We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay - and rise!”
-Maya Angelou

Being human means we sometimes misjudge, forget, overreach, trust the wrong person, or act on incomplete information. A life without mistakes shouldn’t be our goal. It is the response to our mistakes that matters.

What is an office amenity today?
What do workers value most in office settings?
What should downtowns be focused on?

We will explore the answers to these questions during the Chicago Fed’s Economic Mobility Project virtual event on Wednesday, February 11 at 11 AM CT

🔗Register: bit.ly/3YwV3m7

2/11 at 11 AM CT: Join the Chicago Fed’s Economic Mobility Project’s discussion on office vacancy rates featuring
Samir Mayekar (Polsky Center), Amy Binstein (Newmark), @lohplaces.bsky.social)
(@brookings.edu) & Danny Ecker (@crainschicago.bsky.social)

Register: www.chicagofed.org/events/2026/...

“I am my best work – a series of road maps, reports, recipes, doodles, and prayers from the front lines.”
– Audre Lorde

“In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.”
– Thurgood Marshall

“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.”
—Jesse Owen

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

My Winter Waxed Amaryllis is blooming!
#flowers

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.” -George Washington Carver

“Nothing happens in the 'real' world unless it first happens in the images in our heads.”
-Gloria E. Anzaldúa