Yearly Archives:: 2014

1 Positive Takeaway From 2014

December 31st, 2014
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Today is unbelievably my last post for 2014 and I find myself reviewing the year and wondering, “Did I do something different this year that personally broke new ground?  Something that was healthy and healing? ”

Yes I did!

This year I made a commitment to learn how to find quiet time time and meditate.

It was awkward at first and really very hard for me to settle myself, sit still and keep all my stray thoughts at bay while trying to focus on the absence of thought.  But I kept at it and I am making progress.  And that’s … Read More

A Sick Day

December 30th, 2014
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If you live in my area of the world sometimes known as the #DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia), I sincerely hope you have not caught any of the strains of yucky flu quickly making themselves felt as they spread their awful symptoms through young and old. I had a flu shot this year but as my doctor told me yesterday this year’s flu shot unfortunately did not “cover” or protect me from the different strains of flu now floating around in search of perfectly healthy people it can attack and inhabit.  The first symptoms hit me like a wall… Read More

Fa-La-La-La Life

December 24th, 2014
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Today is Christmas Eve and I am full of hope but also wrestling with conflicting thoughts and emotions. I am amazed that Christmas is almost here and yet as I try to finish the last bit of my Christmas wrapping and cooking, in my head plays a spontaneous feature film of Christmas memories jumping around in no particular order: from tender scenes with my brothers and sisters when we were children listening to Johnny Mathis sing Christmas songs through a wonderful Christmas morning with my son from last year.  Then it’s back many, many years to the precious time when… Read More

Kick It Up For Christmas

December 22nd, 2014
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Hey there Resilient Readers: It’s the Monday of Christmas week and today I am going in an entirely different direction; one that is fun and healing and in tune with the holiday spirit.  It’s a post that I hope makes you smile and perhaps reminisce about your own unfulfilled but fond dreams. I have a saying that life is about finding your music and dancing to it.  Dancing has always been something that comes natural to me and something that I love to do.  In one of my former lives, I took dancing lessons for years as a child and… Read More

Helping Teenagers With Grief

December 19th, 2014
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We are deep into the season of celebrating the holidays and messages of merriness are everywhere. Photo Courtesy of Huffington Post But what happens to teenagers when they are trying to cope with school and social pressures and then the parent of one of their friends dies? Or someone in their family dies? Adults are busy tending to shopping, decorating, cooking and organizing so it could be fairly easy to miss that the teenagers in your life might be having some difficulties at this time of year.  Are they spending a little bit more time by themselves or are they… Read More

Tossing Broken Glass

December 12th, 2014
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The other morning I woke up and immediately went downstairs to the kitchen to have my first cup of hot tea.  I have been fighting a cold and cough and was looking forward to its warmth. I was still not quite awake when I opened up the cabinet door to grab my favorite mug featuring the skyline of New York City on the side.  It felt as though I had it in my hand but then I lost my grip and it quickly came crashing to the floor. How the hell did that happen?  Now instead of drinking much needed… Read More

A Lovely Diamond Heart

December 10th, 2014
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And then there are acts of love that people randomly do that are often so selfless as to take your breath away. Upon reading the healing and tender story from Associated Press I am sharing below, I think it definitely fits into the category of giving when it hurts. The giving part of the story involves wedding rings.  I say to you, Lovely Boston Widow, I can’t imagine giving away my wedding rings in that manner, but at the same time, I say more power and blessings to you Lovely Boston Widow for doing it. High five!! Nothing so publicly… Read More

A Cheeky Children’s Christmas Pageant

December 8th, 2014
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Many, many years ago, when the grandchildren in our family were actually children, my Mom and Dad would let them go wild in their linen closet and take any of the sheets, towels, bedspreads and table cloths they wanted to create costumes and then put on a home production of the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day. For sure, it was quite a menagerie of costumes for shepherds, animals, Mary the mother of Jesus. Joseph the carpenter and Mary’s husband and of course, the youngest, no matter whether he or she was a baby or not, got to play the… Read More