Loving Your Family

Thankful Hearts

November 24th, 2016
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leaves-thanksgiving

Wherever you happen to be gathering today, may you be with people who have thankful hearts and giving spirits.

The diversity of Thanksgiving menus offered today reflects the healing powers of food, love, family and friends gathering with one celebration in mind.  Lasagna, Vietnamese soup or a traditional roasted turkey with all of the imaginable sides.  Today has been set aside on the national calendar to give thanks for the food and other gifts that are served and shared as a sign of gratitude for the many blessings we have received.

While I recognize our desire to be thankful today, … Read More

Sweet Little You

October 21st, 2016
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      Yesterday morning, one of my nieces delivered her second child and shazam, just like that our large boisterous family has grown by one more! We expected her arrival at any time during this past week with everyone closely following the daily ups and downs of labor; starting, stopping, starting, stopping until the doctors decided that yesterday was the right time to induce and really kick her labor into high gear. At that point, things started happening very quickly and then suddenly Baby Lilly was here! When you are not around babies on an everyday basis, you can… Read More

Memoir: When Breath Becomes Air

August 15th, 2016
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Dr. Lucy Kalanithi and Dr. Paul Kalanithi with their daughter, Elizabeth Acadia.  Photo Courtesy of Lucy Kalanithi   When friends find something special, they want to share it with others. I recently found a book that is beyond special and today my friends, I would like to share it with you. “When Breath Becomes Air” is a beautiful and touching book about giving yourself up to the unexpected joys of life but also fighting with every ounce of energy that you have within your being when you find your ability to experience those simple and spectacular moments in life is… Read More

Daddy’s Home

June 19th, 2016
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You learn a lot about how to navigate the ups and downs of life by watching your parents. I know I did. The people in charge of raising us, for better or worse, are the people who have the first opportunity at influencing us.  Even when we begin to think we have life figured out for ourselves, we may still think back to something that one of our parents did or said and think to ourselves, “I wonder how they did that?”  “I wonder how they knew that?”  Or  perhaps your parents weren’t so wonderful and you might be thinking, … Read More

Feed Your Soul

April 25th, 2016
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I was reading an article recently on personal growth and wellness and a phrase caught my attention. “…have faith in your ability and accept all that comes your way.” Hmmmmm.  Accept all that comes my way.  I know I have no choice but to accept whatever happens in my life but it’s not always easy to take it as it comes, accept it and move on.  For while I may believe I have the skills or the ability to handle certain situations, I find I am at a point in my life when I would rather not deal with it… Read More

5 On Friday

April 8th, 2016
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  What a freakin’ roller coaster of a week! Since I feel a bit spun around by the events of the last few days, it’s difficult today to put my thoughts into a few simple declarative sentences. Instead I found this dreamy picture. I really wish I were sitting in this car right now, smelling the fresh salt air and letting the warm ocean breeze play through my hair knowing that I could open the door, run to the beach and go swimming. But since I’m not really sitting in this car, I can do the next best thing:  imagine… Read More

Caregiving And Magical Thinking

April 1st, 2016
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When I typed “caregiving” into the Google search bar the following phrases immediately came up: Caregiving is difficult Caregiving is ruining my marriage Caregiving is a thankless job Caregiving is killing me Wow!.  More and more families are faced with issues of caregiving and are feeling the physical and emotional drain of it no matter how much you care about and love the person you are trying to help. Caregiving can be rewarding in surprising ways but it also can be challenging in ways you never imagined. I come from a large family and I really can’t remember a time… Read More

Pat Conroy

March 11th, 2016
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Photo Courtesy of CNN The most powerful words in English are ‘Tell me a story’  ~ Pat Conroy In the midst of all the hurly burly reporting of election politics that’s boldly been crowding our daily headlines,  there was a sad piece of human news last weekend that I felt got lost in the shuffle: Pat Conroy, a courageous man and super talented writer, lost his battle to cancer and died at the age of 70. I say courageous because that’s the first word that comes to my mind when I think of him and his unusual ability to intimately… Read More

Let Them Eat Cake

February 29th, 2016
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A Variety of Wedding Cakes Weddings are the ultimate in family celebrations and June 11 is the big day for my son and his wonderful fiancé! As many of you already know, wedding planning is made up of hundred of decisions, large and small and as with most things life, the process is so different from when I got married decades ago. I mean this in a good way because now there are more choices about invitations, places to get married and of course, the cake which makes the wedding feel that much more personal, reflecting the styles of the… Read More