Posts Tagged: strength

Lessons from the Spin Cycle

September 24th, 2014
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Photo via Pinterest

Photo via Pinterest

 

Whoa Nelly!! I know what this feels like, don’t you?

It feels unexpected, awkward, a little uncontrollable and intense.

As though at any moment, what you thought was stable becomes unstable.

What you thought was predictable become unpredictable.

Mood swings, spontaneous crying and having feelings change very quickly.

I think of experiencing this mixture of feelings as being in a spin cycle if you will. When you are unsure of what is coming next.  It truly feels this way when grief has you on the run or a life changing trauma has taken your breath away.… Read More

An Amazing Gift To Yourself

September 17th, 2014
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For the past four years, I have been watching a member of my family refuse to forgive someone. Sounds incredible right? How could someone voluntarily lug around that much baggage every day?  How could someone consciously decide, all on their own, every day, that they would rather be angry with someone 24 hours a day, than try to fix the problem by opening up an honest dialogue and talking about it to the other person? How can you constantly refuse to accept the hundreds of apologies that have been offered? I guess it’s too hard.  I guess it’s too painful.  … Read More

9/11: Healing & Resilience

September 11th, 2014
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On the thirteenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, my thoughts today are with the people whose lives changed so tragically and so dramatically when their loved ones died. It may not feel to them as if thirteen years has passed since this horrific event.  It may feel as though their loss happened yesterday.  That’s the trick that grief can sometimes play on us.  For no matter how much time has passed, no matter how much work has been put out to move the healing process forward, the anniversary of losing a loved one is a day filled with powerful conflicting… Read More

Someone by Alice McDermott

September 4th, 2014
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Someone  by Alice McDermott was given to me as a Christmas gift but I purposely set it aside because I knew that I wanted to savor every word of this novel.  I knew it was going to be special and I was right. I thoroughly enjoyed reading McDermott’s award-winning book, Charming Billy, and so I was familiar with McDermott’s incredible gift of creating characters that you feel you know, sentences that make you stop and go back and reread them several times and her mastery of quietly leading you into her magical stories. Someone is set in Brooklyn in the… Read More

6 Unbreakable Sibling Bonds

September 2nd, 2014
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Today is a post giving you a little slice of my family life.  A shout-out to my brothers and sisters if you will. I am the oldest of six children.  We are four girls and two boys and are incredibly close in age: there is only seven years between me and my youngest siblings who are twins. I have written a lot about the healing gift of friendship and the important role that my friends play in my life but I haven’t said much about the healing gift of my siblings mainly because I know they don’t want to read… Read More

As High As An Elephant’s Eye

August 15th, 2014
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“There’s a bright, golden haze on the meadowThere’s a bright, golden haze on the meadow.The corn is as high as an elephant’s eyeAnd it looks like it’s climbing clear up to the sky.” Lyrics to “Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin’ ” by Oscar Hammerstein II Walking among the farmer’s stalls yesterday, my eyes were in search of corn on the cob.  Specifically, the kind of corn on the cob that you can only get in August when the corn is white and oh so sweet and when you eat it it feels like it goes to your very core to… Read More

A Neighborly Comfort Zone

August 13th, 2014
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I am blessed with great neighbors.  We wave and chat when we see each other, we bring our newspapers in for each other when we know someone is away and we all get along in, well, I must say, a neighborly way.  We don’t really socialize with each other that much but we are aware of how most of us are doing and the general goings on in our busy lives. An older couple who lives nearby has a great porch that has a beautiful navy blue and white striped awning and we all hang out there from time to… Read More

The Grief Buzz

August 6th, 2014
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What’s the Buzz? Tara Reid tells us what she learned from talk radio.  4 LGBT refugees discuss why they came to the US.  Find out which “Friends” character should be your roommate. It’s Buzzfeed where the hottest, most social content on the web lives 24/7.  You know.  All the stuff you want to pass along to your friends. IMMEDIATELY.  To me, Buzzfeed is also a website where you find funny pictures of cats and dogs and read ALL about the latest wacky trends developing in pop culture. And to get right to it, Buzzfeed’s stories or lists are totally about… Read More

Malala Day – #StrongerThan

July 14th, 2014
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Today is not just any Monday in July. It is July 14:  Malala Day.  A day of celebrating inner strength and courage. I find strength through my connections with my family, friends and my faith and I hope you too have figured out your own emotional support system that helps you sustain a spirit of hope and get to the other side of those tough and challenging times that life sends our way. Malala Yousafzai Besides those core resources, I also draw strength from other people that I have never met and don’t know personally at all.  Other people that… Read More