This may sound weird but listening to songs about summer is a refuge for me.
It’s a total sensory gut reaction. As in when I hear a summer song that clicks within me, I mentally escape reality for a short time and my inner self begins to calm and heal. It’s musical magic and for a few minutes the world full of noise is blocked out as I play my summer song over and over and over.
You would think I was a teenager who just developed her first crush because I just won’t let go of it. The winning … Read More
I wonder what our lives would be like today if he were still alive?
This question keeps rolling over in my mind as I stand in a stationary store, browsing through the Father’s Day cards, trying to find a card to give my wonderful 87-year-old Dad but also thinking of the emptiness of the day for my son whose father died when he was thirteen years old.
Of course there is no way to know what life would be like if my husband, my son’s father, was still alive and with us, but that doesn’t stop my meandering mind from… 
When I am feeling vulnerable from making a mistake or stressed out from a work project or just plain personally overloaded by my life, I try to find something that will feed my inner resources. Something that will feed my soul.
If something goes wrong or becomes overwhelming or things in general don’t feel as though they are in sync in a good way, then I know I need to find a sweet spot where I can take a break and treat myself to something positive. Not anything big or expensive. Just something that makes the clouds break and brings… 
I’m still here.
These are words of determination and strength. They come from facing up to a cold hard truth about a new reality that life has given us to handle. It could be the loss of a loved one or an unexpected and tragic diagnosis, accident or attack. The person saying these words is often trying to tell you that they are still searching or have found a new way to live through the pain and suffering of this change in their life.
I’m still here.
I used these words many times after my husband died. For me they… 
We all have sat through graduation ceremonies that we thought would never end.
The reading of the names of the graduates seems to go on and on and I usually zone out until I hear the name of the person that I care about. Then I suddenly pay attention, take a few pictures and clap and yell for the graduate I know.
But as mundane and routine as a graduation ceremony can sometimes be, think about the families behind each one of those names and the hours of work and the years of love and constructive support that went into… 
“Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, ‘I’m with you, kid. Let’s go.'”
~ Dr. Maya Angelou
Let’s go indeed! Did Dr. Maya Angelou take every opportunity to grab life by the lapels? You bet she did!
Every day she grabbed life by the lapels and the seat pants and she held on for dear life, inspiring and showing us through her writings, speeches and screen presence the true passions of her life: civil rights, being kind, education and striving to do the best in whatever you are doing.
Resilience, beauty and grace; thy name… 
