I Want What She’s Having: Nora Ephron

“You can always change your mind,” Nora Ephron once said. “I should know; I’ve had four careers and three husbands.”

Well said Ms. Ephron, and may you rest in peace today after living through all those careers and husbands and giving us the best of your wit and wisdom for 71 years.

I could not choose which of her books, columns, movies or observations was my favorite. I have read most of them, and taken all of it to heart.

She used to say that “everything is copy,” meaning that everything and everyone around her could end up in a screenplay somewhere. That is the journalist in her. We journalists are present. We see life in the details.

When she passed this week of pneumonia and complications from a form of Leukemia, I was immediately reminded that the world is less one funny, brilliant woman. She was on the top shelf of people I admire, along with Erma Bombeck, as one of the few who could be funny without malice. She could crack wise about things that appeared on the surface but ran deep. She was fundamentally good.

That is why I did not name the journalist in my book who jumped on top of me in a hotel room many, many years ago when I was trying to find my first job as a writer. I did not know her, but I adored her. And with all that was happening in her marriage she did not need another young woman to come forward to say the things she already knew.

She had four careers, three husbands and two sons. And millions of fans. I am one of them, and I will miss her terribly as I try to follow along in her footsteps. Yes, I want what she’s having, because Nora Ephron really knew how to have a good time.

Michelle Berman Marchildon is the Yogi Muse. She’s an award-winning journalist, a former corporate executive and a survivor of 50+ years of life. Known as the “Erma Bombeck of the Mat,” Michelle is the author of the memoir “Finding More on the Mat: How I Grew Better, Wiser and Stronger through Yoga,” and a Columnist for Elephant Journal and Origin Magazine.  She is an E-500 RYT with Yoga Alliance and teaches Aligned Vinyasa in Denver, Co. Even though she is uber-fabulous, she is NOT an Ambassador for Lululemon, and has been promised she will never be one. You can take her with you on your computer or I-thing by downloading her classes from www.yogadownload.com.