Caring For Yourself

Step By Baby Step

November 7th, 2011
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When life deals you a blow, your first reaction is to withdraw and protect yourself.  You want to crawl under the covers, lock the doors and wait for the bad stuff to go away.

But guess what?  In the long run, that doesn’t work.  Denial usually makes a situation a whole helluva lot worse.

There are lots of theories about why things get worse when they are ignored, but I think it happens because when you don’t pay attention to your thoughts and feelings they build up like a pressure cooker and at some point, that ole pot is going … Read More

Maya Angelou

October 27th, 2011
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Talk about rebuilding your life and living courageously.  Maya Angelou is truly an inspiring woman.  Enjoy this Washington Post interview with her: Marvin Joseph/WASHINGTON POST Celebrated poet Maya Angelou speaks about a life well and creatively lived By Laura Hambleton, Published: October 24 The Washington Post Poet, writer, civil rights activist, professor, filmmaker, dramatist, singer, Grammy Award winner: Maya Angelou, 83, has also been called the nation’s premier memoirist. She was in Washington last week speaking about her long, rich life. Having come to prominence in 1970 with the publication of her acclaimed first memoir, “I Know Why the Caged… Read More

Staying Healthy

October 26th, 2011
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I don’t think Halloween is considered the beginning of the holiday season, but in an unofficial way it’s the start of that time of the year when fattening goodies seem to be everywhere.  It’s a constant struggle, and for me, I really have to mentally up the ante against gaining weight and remind myself that it may taste good now but it will take a lot longer to work it off. Halloween is all about the candy and it seems to be everywhere: the grocery store, CVS, offices and even banks — which never give out anything for free.  At… Read More

Healing Help

October 17th, 2011
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  Photo credit: Samantha Kira Harding   When you are in a place where you are searching to rebuild your life after the loss of a loved one and trying to find “a new normal” for yourself and your children, recognizing, addressing and expressing the strong emotions associated with grief can be helpful in getting you to a heal place. Moving forward takes time.  Unfortunately, there is no set schedule for when you are considered to be officially “healed.”  It would be comforting to be able to predict exactly how long it will take for you to deal with your… Read More

Buddha Truth

October 10th, 2011
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Three things cannot be long hidden:  the sun,  the moon  and the truth.                                  — Buddha… Read More

Gratitude

August 26th, 2011
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In her best-selling book Simple Abundance, author Sarah Ban Breathnach recommends spending a few minutes each morning and evening listing five things for which you are grateful. Once a day is good enough for me but at the end of a particularly great or horrendous day you might want to think again about some of the unexpected things that happened to you. Focusing on the positive aspects of life is what’s it’s all about.  After a week that started with me taking my son back to college for his senior year in New York City, then an unprecedented 5.8 earthquake… Read More

Eating and Grieving

July 14th, 2011
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I took a visit to the farmer’s market down the street from my office today and of course learned something new and good for me. ‘Cause that’s what farmer’s markets are all about!! The Summer 2011 issue of Flavor magazine features a cover story about Sam Kass, assistant chef at the White House.  The story, written by former New York Times and Washington Post staff reporter Marion Burros, discusses how Kass changed the way the Obama family eats.  By cooking wholesome local and seasonal foods for the Obama family during the presidential campaign and now in the White House kitchen, … Read More

Solo to See Owen Danoff

July 11th, 2011
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In keeping with the many unknowns that you face on your journey to rebuild your life after losing a loved one, going out by yourself for social events is on that master list of things that is easier for men to do than it is for women.  At least it is for me. It’s not like I never did anything by myself when my husband was alive, but it’s different now.  I miss many things about not being part of a couple at social events, such as not having someone in the car so you can talking about the evening… Read More