Living Your Life

6 Unbreakable Sibling Bonds

September 2nd, 2014
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Today is a post giving you a little slice of my family life.  A shout-out to my brothers and sisters if you will.

I am the oldest of six children.  We are four girls and two boys and are incredibly close in age: there is only seven years between me and my youngest siblings who are twins.

I have written a lot about the healing gift of friendship and the important role that my friends play in my life but I haven’t said much about the healing gift of my siblings mainly because I know they don’t want to read … Read More

Why Is Listening Powerful?

August 29th, 2014
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Texting is fun, emailing is great but I find the best skill I can practice is one that is not electronic: listening. Listening is the oldest and perhaps the most powerful tool of healing, according to Rachael Naomi Remen, a pioneer in the mind/body holistic health movement and author of Kitchen Table Wisdom.  Remen writes that it is often through the quality of our listening and not the wisdom of our words that we are able to effect the most profound changes in the people around us. Listening to another person is not just about hearing the words that someone… Read More

Baking Zukey Bonanza Bread

August 22nd, 2014
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Many of our most powerful memories are tied to food. A spectacular cake served at one of our birthdays, a delicious meal eaten at a special restaurant, or a dish made by someone we love. One of my favorite summer memories is remembering the dinners I used to have at a beach restaurant that sadly doesn’t exist anymore.  It was a comfortable family restaurant with great food and friendly service and it was a relaxing place to go after a day spent on the beach.  Our son was about seven or eight years old when my late husband and I… Read More

True Blue Hope

August 20th, 2014
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Just a quiet thought today……. Much effort has gone into looking for life elsewhere in the solar system and beyond, always preceded by the question: “Where’s the water?” With water,  there could be life, no blue, no life.                                          ~     Sylvia Earle  … Read More

Prescription: Go To The Beach!

August 18th, 2014
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I have always believed that the natural elements of the beach can heal me and help to make me feel whole again. No matter what my age, from childhood to right this minute, the beach is always a comforting place for me to work through my troubles. I have spent countless hours wiggling my feet in the warm and comforting sand, listening to powerful and relaxing sound of the waves crashing on the shore and I always come away feeling renewed.  The beach, almost any beach, is my trusted “go-to” place, my happy place if you will, and the beach… Read More

A Neighborly Comfort Zone

August 13th, 2014
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I am blessed with great neighbors.  We wave and chat when we see each other, we bring our newspapers in for each other when we know someone is away and we all get along in, well, I must say, a neighborly way.  We don’t really socialize with each other that much but we are aware of how most of us are doing and the general goings on in our busy lives. An older couple who lives nearby has a great porch that has a beautiful navy blue and white striped awning and we all hang out there from time to… Read More

We Are Love

August 11th, 2014
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Wow!! My weekend certainly went by like a flash!  I visited my parents, worked around the house, talked to a very sick friend in the hospital and got a lot accomplished.  I hope your weekend was everything you planned it to be!! Starting the new work week with good thoughts is important to me because I try to set a tone within myself and stick to it as much as I can.  I am reminded today of a particularly beautiful excerpt from Marianne Williams book, “A Return To Love:” “Just as a sunbeam can’t separate itself from the sun, and… Read More

The Grief Buzz

August 6th, 2014
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What’s the Buzz? Tara Reid tells us what she learned from talk radio.  4 LGBT refugees discuss why they came to the US.  Find out which “Friends” character should be your roommate. It’s Buzzfeed where the hottest, most social content on the web lives 24/7.  You know.  All the stuff you want to pass along to your friends. IMMEDIATELY.  To me, Buzzfeed is also a website where you find funny pictures of cats and dogs and read ALL about the latest wacky trends developing in pop culture. And to get right to it, Buzzfeed’s stories or lists are totally about… Read More

3 Irresistible Healing Summer Songs

August 4th, 2014
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This may sound weird but listening to songs about summer is a refuge for me. It’s a total sensory gut reaction.  As in when I hear a summer song that clicks within me, I mentally escape reality for a short time and my inner self begins to calm and heal.  It’s musical magic and for a few minutes the world full of noise is blocked out as I play my summer song over and over and over. You would think I was a teenager who just developed her first crush because I just won’t let go of it.  The winning… Read More