A New York Lesson

January 28th, 2014
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To have an uninterrupted block of time in which to read is to me a pure, unadulterated luxury.
Don’t you just love that word luxury?  It just rolls off your tongue and sounds a bit sinful.
Reading for pleasure is healing and similar to putting your foot on the brake of life, stopping your normal crunched up, sometimes scattered daily routine, and allowing your mind to travel elsewhere.  When I find a book that has a compelling story line I am mentally gone and immersed in the characters and their lives and lose all track of the passage of time.  … Read More

The Notebook

January 15th, 2014
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I never know when I am going to read or hear something that I might want to use in writing a future blog post so I try to always carry a small notebook with me.  On the times that I have forgotten my notebook, I have written notes on the back of envelopes, cocktail napkins and business cards which then creates this messy pile of stray notes. For now, the small spiral notebook I am using is almost full and it caused me recently to flip through the worn pages to check and see if I had missed anything that… Read More

Creative Encouragement

January 14th, 2014
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Each day is a new opportunity to find inspiration! People, nature, architecture, words, acts of kindness or even criticism can spark inspiration in me to go forward and think about my life in a new or different way.  The world around us can serve to fuel the fire of our inner creativity or cause us to shift our ideas about the way life happens. Inspiration keeps me going and renews my faith and hope in the future of myself and others.  Regardless of where you find yourself right now or what happened to you last week, last month or last… Read More

The Magic of A Party

January 13th, 2014
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The Washington, DC weather on Saturday may have been rainy, foggy and dreary but it had  no affect on the atmosphere inside one cozy house in Northwest DC where it was bright, warm and full of happiness. Was this house in some kind of weather bubble? Yes it was because it was the site of a birthday party that my super duper spectacular friends gave for me and I can say without hesitation that it was the best birthday party ever!!  Talk about healing!  Wow!  I was feeling the love and it was totally through the stratosphere for me in… Read More

Falling Can Make You Stronger

January 9th, 2014
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One of my sisters sent me the video posted below that’s about Moms and the endless, loving support they give their children.  In the case of this video, it shows Moms and their budding athletes in the beginning stages of learning their sports skills and then the years of repetition, the unending practice, practice, practice performed by the children until they reach the ultimate competition of the Olympics. It’s a wonderful video, tracing the path of infants and babies falling, getting back up, trying again and again, finally learning to ice skate, snowboard and ski so that they may perform … Read More

Kickstarting Change

January 6th, 2014
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Hey there!  I hope you had a great and productive weekend or perhaps it was a weekend chock full of fun! Mine was full, but it was full of running interference for family members and in particular trying to understand the emotional needs of one family member.  I keep reminding myself that life and it’s unpleasant conflicts are all about love, love, love! In the midst of this whirlwind weekend of emotions, I found the following quote which I felt was insightful and particularly timely: “And that is how change happens. One gesture.  One person. One moment at a time.”                        … Read More

Family Dynamics

December 27th, 2013
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I’m sure I’m stating the obvious when I say that every family has its own dynamic and its own way of relating to each other and I think that this special form of communication developed within the family over the years is revealed in its barest form on a holiday. Let me tell you about mine.  Please?  Okay.  At least a little bit. Take 15 adults, 8 grandchildren in their teens and twenties, 6 children under the age of six and one newborn baby and put them all together in close quarters for a number of hours and what do… Read More

Confessions of A Mediocre Widow By Catherine Tidd

December 20th, 2013
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The title of Catherine Tidd’s new book suggests she is a mediocre widow. Don’t believe it for one second. Catherine Tidd is quite the opposite.  Catherine Tidd is in fact a courageous, smart and very funny woman in search of herself and an entirely different life while raising three young children after the death of her beloved husband, Brad, in a tragic motorcycle accident in 2007. Her book is refreshing and down-to-earth and is full of painful and funny personal insights about what happened to her after the death of her spouse: the hospital, the funeral, her in-laws, the whole… Read More

Developing A Grief Pill

December 9th, 2013
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I just read that the pharmaceutical industry is researching the development an anti-depressant pill for people who are grieving. Hmmmmm…. My gut feeling when I first read this story about the availability of a so-called grief pill in The Washington Post was that it seemed rather predatory of the pharmaceutical industry to be focusing its scientific expertise and vast financial resources on people when they are at the most vulnerable and sometimes lowest points in their lives. I vividly remember the competing emotions I felt after my husband died.  Raw pain and numbness.  Exhaustion and adrenaline.  On top of all… Read More