Everyone’s A Paddy Today!

March 17th, 2016
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Irish-culture-in-breif

 

When my son was in kindergarten, his wonderful teacher had a great way for the children to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

She took all of the last names of the boys and girls in his class and wrote them on shamrocks made of green construction paper and then as an added surprise, she added either “Mc” or “O'” in front of the names to make everyone feel they were Irish.  Just to give you an idea, Smith would become McSmith or O’Smith.  Then she taped the shamrocks to the front of the kindergarten entrance for the whole school … Read More

Dreamy Monday Music

March 7th, 2016
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  I was cleaning out my car over the weekend and found a Vanessa Williams CD under one of the car seats that I used to play all the time.  Don’t you love it when you unexpectedly find things that you forgot about?  I think the best surprise is when you put on a jacket or a coat you haven’t worn in awhile and you find money in the pockets.  Yes! Isn’t that a great feeling? In any case, getting back to my newly found CD, music is always a great friend.  Every morning as I drive to work, I… Read More

Earth Wind & Fire Remembered

February 8th, 2016
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Maurice White Courtesy of Getty Images   The music that some bands create can be so distinctive that you know their songs right away.  Almost instantly.  As in when you hear the first few bars of a song, you know it’s theirs and theirs alone. Falling into this unique category would be the fabulous and funky music created by the hit making machine called Earth, Wind & Fire. Maurice White, a major musical talent who founded Earth, Wind & Fire and co-wrote such hits as “Shining Star,” “Sing A Song,” “September,” “Reasons,” and “Fantasy,” sadly died last week in his… Read More

Songbird – Eva Cassidy

December 14th, 2015
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Eva Cassidy Singing At Washington, D.C.’s jazz club, Blues Alley Good Morning Friends! If your weekend was as busy as mine, then I bet you are ready to go ever so gently into this Monday by listening to some healing music. Songbird is a popular song recorded and written by Christine McVie.  You may know it from Fleetwood Mac’s infamous platinum awarding winning album Rumours. This beautiful song was brought back to me when The Washington Post ran a story about her last week and then a good friend of mine posted Eva’s cover of Songbird on her Facebook page… Read More

Channeling Iggy Azalea

July 3rd, 2015
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When I feel my internal stress-o-meter starting to rise, then I know it’s time to find something that will make me laugh. Big time. Something that will make me forget that life can sometimes feel like a pressure cooker. Laughing immediately releases tension for me and it also allows me to put what is causing my stress into perspective.  Which means that I am trying to let myself know that the stress causer is not important and shouldn’t be using my valuable energy. Translation: it’s no big whoop so I need to move on and find something funny that will… Read More

Ways of Encouragement

May 21st, 2015
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You’re having a day. Guess what?  So am I! Let’s join each other in encouragement. We know it’s hard.  It’s stressful and sometimes it’s even lonely and painful. And yet I know I don’t want to give up.  And I know you don’t want to either.  Because right around that corner or even the next time we try to go at a problem and process those feelings of frustration, there is the possibility that it could go away. Right? What is the purpose of always being in a position of trying to solve something?  Sometimes I’m not sure.  Sometimes, I… Read More

Looking for Mr. Sandman

March 2nd, 2015
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Monday morning is here already and I hope your weekend went just as you planned! For me, I wish I were feeling a little more refreshed and revived because don’t you hate it when you find yourself awake in the middle of the night? When your mind is thinking about things that have carried over from your day? This has happened to me a few times recently and I plan to roll with it until I can get back on track.  For even as we plan for the best to happen in our lives, sometimes traumas and tragic losses of… Read More

Reward Yourself

January 26th, 2015
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When I find myself in times of worry or stress, I often handle it by giving myself rewards. I focus on the stressful or worrisome tasks that I have to deal with and then in the back of my mind I tell myself that when I’m done with whatever it is for the time being, I will do something that will make me feel better about life. For me, rewards are sometimes a critical part of managing the darker sides of life.  Rewards give me a boost and make me feel as though I can carry on.  It can be… Read More

Kick It Up For Christmas

December 22nd, 2014
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Hey there Resilient Readers: It’s the Monday of Christmas week and today I am going in an entirely different direction; one that is fun and healing and in tune with the holiday spirit.  It’s a post that I hope makes you smile and perhaps reminisce about your own unfulfilled but fond dreams. I have a saying that life is about finding your music and dancing to it.  Dancing has always been something that comes natural to me and something that I love to do.  In one of my former lives, I took dancing lessons for years as a child and… Read More