Creative Encouragement

January 14th, 2014
Posted By:

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

A Broken Christmas Ritual

December 31st, 2013
Posted By:

I can’t tell you why but for the first time in many years, I didn’t place a Christmas wreath on my husband’s marker at the cemetery. I thought about it.  I was going to do it.  But then I never did get around to it. I’m hoping that this doesn’t make me a bad person.I’m really hoping it just makes me a conflicted human being dealing with life the best way I know.Every Christmas since he died 10 years ago, I have made a personal ceremony out of placing a large Christmas wreath with a big red bow on his… Read More

Newtown One Year Anniversary

December 14th, 2013
Posted By:

Today we pause and pray for the community of Newtown, Connecticut and in particular for the families of the 26 victims shot in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  At a press conference earlier this week, the families asked that people remember the 6 adults and 20 children on this tragic one year anniversary by performing an act of kindness or volunteering with a community group. You can visit their new website at www.mysandyhookfamily.org… Read More

Bridget’s Affirmation

December 13th, 2013
Posted By:

When one of my nieces was three years old, she started going to nursery school for part of the day a few times a week.  Her mother (my sister) knew that while she was at school she would start to miss Mommy at some point so she taught her daughter to say to herself, “There is no need to cry.  Everything will be all right.  Mommy will be right back.” My sister was ahead of her time because she was teaching my niece to say an affirmation to herself even though she didn’t know what an affirmation was or what… Read More

Congratulations Pope Francis!

December 12th, 2013
Posted By:

Yesterday’s news that Time magazine selected Pope Francis as their Person Of The Year surprised me just as much as when the College of Cardinals elected him to become Pope. I didn’t think it would really happen but I am ecstatic that it did! I knew Pope Francis was a finalist for the annual honor but I really thought that Time magazine was going to go with former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who this year released hundreds of thousands of classified government documents revealing the depth of the U.S. government’s surveillance on phone and internet communications. But spiritual… Read More

Nothing More — The Alternate Routes

November 29th, 2013
Posted By:

After a day spent counting our blessings and giving thanks, today we are full of gratitude right? To keep that warm and fuzzy and wonderful feeling of kindness going, here is a song introduced to me by Hannah Donnelly (a Jesuit Volunteer Corps alumni & my son’s girlfriend) that I know I will be singing or humming to myself today or whenever I feel my patience starting to wear.  It is a beautiful song, offering hope and I think it fosters the spirit of giving. The song, “Nothing More” was written specifically for Newtown Kindness (www.newtownkindness.org) and is performed by… Read More

Can You Hear Me Now?

October 29th, 2013
Posted By:

It’s one thing to forget to turn your cell phone off and then have it ring while you are in church, in a job interview, at a funeral or in a theater, but it takes some major manipulation of a person’s ego to actually answer it while they are in those places. Right? Someone I didn’t know sat next to me during a play and her cell phone started ringing.  I immediately looked at her and she started searching her purse to find the phone.  I assumed that once she found it, she would just turn it off.  Wrong!! She… Read More

Here’s A Truth

October 7th, 2013
Posted By:

Here’s a truth:  when I write about the importance of being positive and finding positive inspiration in our lives and the idea of finding and doing new things, sometimes it is as much for me as it is for you. Please don’t ever get the idea that I always have it together and that I am always able to just forge ahead with my life without any hesitations or second guessing or ever feeling inadequate.  I have those feelings just as anyone.  Those feelings tend to sneak up on me when I least suspect it and I fight hard to… Read More

Changes At Arlington Cemetery

October 3rd, 2013
Posted By:

A cemetery is an intimate place. For me, it is a place where I let down my guard and become vulnerable to my feelings.  Sometimes I raise my arms to the sky as if saying that I am ready to let it all wash over me but other times I sit silently and close my eyes and try to center my thoughts. In the summertime when I visit my husband’s grave, I sometimes love to lay in the grass that covers where he is buried.  As I lay on my back looking up at the sky, I love to let… Read More