Staying Focused

September 6th, 2018
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Victoria Magazine PumpkinPhoto Courtesy of Victoria Magazine

When I recently flipped my desk calendar over to the month of September, I also looked back to the previous summer months and the multitude of handwritten notes that were scattered on and around the pages reminding me about appointments and things to do.

While I didn’t get as much accomplished during Summer as I had thought I would, I made pretty good progress.

I’m sure I’m not alone in finding that projects don’t evolve as quickly or as easily as you would like them to.  There always seems to be unexpected steps that pop … Read More

Buh Bye 2017!

December 31st, 2017
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Today, the last day of 2017, tends to be a day when most of us mentally review events that happened to us during the past year and I’ve concluded, that for me, 2017 was a year of feeling it all. 2017 took me on a most bumpy and unexpected ride and I must say I am happy to say Buh Bye to one rollercoaster of a year. From the beginning of January to the end of December, 2017 was 12 months of experiencing pretty much every emotion that there is to feel as a human being.  This unpredictability of course… Read More

Having A Thankful Heart

November 20th, 2017
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As we slide into this holiday week of Thanksgiving, my thoughts turn to the simple idea of setting aside a day to show gratitude. Yes life is crazy, messy and unpredictable. Yes the holiday season can be painful and a stinging reminder of a terrible loss or a difficult family situation. But you can sit yourself down and listen to your heart and acknowledge your limits.  Be aware of what you need before you join family and friends for any holiday event.  Express your thoughts and feelings to a trusted person.  Change up your expectations and instead focus on one… Read More

September 11, 2017

September 11th, 2017
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National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York City “The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh.” ~ Samuel Beckett, Waiting For Godot All of us carry images in our minds that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. I think it is safe to say that some of the images we will never forget include the events of September 11, 2001. While this horrific event and the thousands of lives lost during that tragic day happened… Read More

5 Fabulous Ways to Heal

June 8th, 2017
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Healing. What a great word!  When I say it or think about it, I feel warm inside, as though I just ate a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. Our opportunities to find healing are all around us, just waiting for us to reach out.  We can let the passage of time take its own course by hoping, hoping, hoping that healing feelings will eventually wash over us or we can act on trying to heal our inner selves when we feel ready to face the sad or traumatic feelings that we carry in our hearts.  Feeling the pain and talking… Read More

5 Purifying Places to Cry

May 16th, 2017
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Emmy Award Winning Actor Jon Hamm as Mad Men’s Don Draper (Yes, Men Do Cry & That’s Okay) Sometimes the feeling starts in my throat. It feels tight.  I try to swallow a few times to see if that will make it go away. The next thing I know a lump has formed as I begin to feel my eyes well up with water.  I try looking up at the ceiling because a good friend told me this is a trick she uses to prevent crying. Or I pinch the bridge of my nose so that I focus on the … Read More

Quiet Help From A Friend

March 24th, 2017
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Life sometimes reminds me of a science experiment. Some days it’s a spontaneous experiment gone bad and then other days it can turn out to be an explosion of joy, as in a science experiment gone fabulous. The science I am reminded of today has to do with the classic law of physics that we all learned in school and that is: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Conversations can sometimes fall into this law of physics, many of them revolving around that push-pull, turning into equal and opposite reactions of a dynamic conversation or they… Read More

Let’s Rise Up

November 12th, 2016
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  My late husband, Tom O’Toole, as a young boy   Good Morning Friends: So how was your week? I’m not trying to be flip.  I am genuinely concerned. We live in a topsy turvy world and you would have to be stationed in some unbelievably remote part of the globe not to be aware of the election results in this week’s U.S. presidential contest.  Seriously, it has been quite a freaking week and everyone I know (including myself) is still absorbing what happened. On top of the surprising election results, my family received some sad personal news that I … Read More

Finding Your Community

September 23rd, 2016
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    You’re in the mood to go out.  Maybe go see a movie.  Maybe get a drink. But as a suddenly single, widowed or recently divorced person you might find that your usual go-to friends are busy and you aren’t enthusiastic about going out by yourself. It’s not that you can’t do it because you’ve done it before.  You’ve done it because you hate to think that you won’t do something just because you don’t have anyone to do it with. You went out by yourself to prove that you could and it was okay but not great.  It … Read More