Living Your Life

Willing To Wonder

February 27th, 2014
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I do not at all understand
the mystery of grace —
only that it meets us
where we are
but does not leave us
where it found us.
          ~ Anne Lamott… Read More

A Navajo Prayer

February 19th, 2014
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As we embrace a new day. . . Contra Costa County, California Photo Courtesy of Flickr A Navajo Prayer In beauty may I walk. All day long may I walk. Through the returning seasons may I walk. On the trail marked with pollen may I walk. With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk. With dew about my feet may I walk. Planting Fields Arboretum  Long Island New York With beauty may I walk. With beauty before me may I walk. With beauty behind me may I walk. With beauty above me may I walk. With beauty below me may… Read More

Say Yes to Empowerment

February 18th, 2014
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The essence of resilience is bouncing back to a healthy place after you have been counted out. Emotionally resilient people recognize that some good can come from even the most traumatic events.  Not only are people resilient but cities can be too.  Look at New York City.  In the 1970’s, New York City was a dangerous place.  It’s economy was on the verge of collapse and its streets and subways were full of crime and gangs and homeless people.  People could not find jobs.  Traveling to New York City today, there is hardly any evidence of its darker and grittier… Read More

Your Life, Your Movie

February 17th, 2014
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“Stay In Your Own Movie” ~ DeVon Franklin When my son was a young child, he would talk about going to various friend’s houses to play and how wonderful their house was, how great their snacks were and how nice their parents were and how perfect everything always seemed when he was there at whatever friends house he happened to be.  Sometimes he would even tell me that the parents of some of his friends never even ever argued.  Ever. First I told him that they were waiting for him to leave so they could have their argument and then… Read More

It’s Snowtime!

February 13th, 2014
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After days of hearing the local weather people forecast that lots of snow was headed our way, it really happened!  Flakes began to fall around 7 pm last in Washington, DC and it remained steady throughout last night and continues into this morning. I measured 14 inches of snow outside my door and I have yet to see a snow plow come into my neighborhood.  Oh well. . .  The federal government is shut down and so are schools along with most businesses. Yes, my friends, a day off from work is a healing day!! Here’s what my part of… Read More

A Listening Binge

February 12th, 2014
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For the past several weeks, I have been on a listening binge and it feels healing. There are a number of family members and friends who are going through various kinds of difficult personal situations and, in trying to be helpful, I have been listening to what they tell me they want to talk about, in particular what it feels like to be in their crisis, what they really wish they could do to solve it and how frustrating it is to have the situation go on and on. Listening may seem as though it is a passive activity but… Read More

Strength Through Sharing

February 10th, 2014
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Sharing my stories, and those of others, can entertain, offer strength and inspiration and sometimes minimize the isolation that is felt in relationships or personal crisis.  I share to bond, to reach out, to reveal that I am vulnerable just like you. No one knows when someone else’s story will unexpectedly touch a life and help another person gain a new perspective on grief, a subject people they know about but in fact they don’t.  Someone else’s words can bring new understanding to the issues of life and death,  of physical and emotional survival and help you see things differently.… Read More

Peyton Manning

February 3rd, 2014
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I am writing this post while Sunday’s Super Bowl game is being played in East Rutherford, NJ and the Denver Broncos are losing so badly there is hardly any way they can come back from being down so many points.  And then Denver lost.  Badly. Yet Peyton Manning is still a winner to me. This is a guy who gets signed to the Denver Broncos in 2012 after giving his heart and soul to the Indianapolis Colts for years.  The Colts release him because he misses playing during the entire 2011  season because of a neck injury and then undergoes… Read More

Vulnerability

January 31st, 2014
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Something To Think About. . . . . “Vulnerability is not about winning, and it’s not about losing. It’s about having the courage to show up and be seen.”                                            ~ Brene Brown… Read More