Posts Tagged: hope

Grief Sucks

April 8th, 2017
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Gonzaga Two

My Dad At A Gonzaga Rally 

Dear Faithful Friends:

Excuse my French, but as the title of this post suggests, grief does suck.

I haven’t been on social media very much lately though it’s not for lack of trying.  Since my Dad’s death in February, I can’t tell you how many times I have tried to sit down and write something but all the words get balled up.

I know I am stating the obvious but it needs to be said.  When you call something what it is, you bring it out into the open.  Maybe it just sits in … Read More

Love Connections

February 14th, 2017
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Valentine’s Day may be what some people call a “Hallmark Holiday” but love is always worth celebrating whether you embrace all of the commercial hoopla or just quietly light a candle, give a meaningful hug or tap out a telephone number to connect with a special person. Love gives us hope.  Love makes us feel all tingly inside and helps our resilient hearts beat a little faster.  Love is exciting. Love is also risky.  To find it is definitely a roll of the emotional dice and, depending on the person, you may want to immediately throw the dice.  Or as … 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

Hard Days Kind Actions

October 7th, 2016
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I was having one of those days recently when I was doing my best to think positively but it didn’t seem to be working out. My thoughts felt powerless as things disintegrated around me.  Stuck in traffic.  Rescheduled deadlines. Unscheduled meetings.  Extra phone calls to untangle things that had been screwed up.  No matter how hard I tried to stay calm and focused on turning things around, I couldn’t change it. While the meltdown continued to happen throughout my day, I tried to figure out how things started to go south.  I was trying to see in my mind’s eye… Read More

Princess Diana — 19 Years

August 31st, 2016
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Revealing your unfiltered feelings and becoming vulnerable to another person is not something anyone does easily, particularly when you are brokenhearted and trying to talk about the loss of a treasured loved one. I bring up the subject of talking about the loss of a loved one for today is the 19th anniversary of the tragic death of Princess Diana, one of the most iconic women of our time and one of her beloved sons, Prince William, who is now a parent himself, recently had a tender conversation with a young boy who had recently experienced the loss of his… Read More

In The Moment

August 29th, 2016
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  Hey there my Resilient Friends! This summer I have been sensing a theme among good solid friends I see a lot and great friends I see occasionally: change is in the air. When we get to a certain place in our lives, we mentally hold pictures of how we think life is going to play itself out.  But life has its’ own idea of what should happen and when we see that our lives aren’t following the groove we had hoped for, we are left with the expectations of what is no longer to be.  I have noticed that… Read More

Finding My Place

August 8th, 2016
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There are many reasons why I look forward to my yoga class, but the thing that always brings me back over and over is its ability to help me find my place. By the time I arrive at my class, I usually feel emotionally and physically scattered from work and whatever is going on in my wacky life.  I always start my days with the best of intentions and I try to use my time wisely but somehow things unravel and then I find I am trouble shooting some unexpected crisis.  Of course, there are some days when things go… Read More

Big Little Adjustments

August 1st, 2016
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August begins anew today, giving us cause to flip the calendar to a new page. Yes I am old-school and still use paper calendars. Perhaps you find electronic devices easier, but I happen to think paper is fun and enjoy the different beach and nature themes of the calendars I have hanging in my kitchen, my home office and my work office. As I quickly flip the calendar page, I feel a flash of melancholy as I realize that another month, especially a summer month, has come and gone.  The summer season is so uplifting for me that I really… Read More

Real Life Re-Entry

July 25th, 2016
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  Today I reluctantly come back to the real world. I have been living as Beach Bum Girl for the past week and loving every minute of it.  To say that the beach is my Happy Place is an understatement.  Every year I return to the same beach with family and friends so that I may slow down and embrace the simple and beautiful ways of living near the shore. Hopefully a vacation of some sort is in your summer plans.  We all need to spend time away from our work routines and relax because it’s important for maintaining good… Read More