Lea Michele & Cory Monteith

March 10th, 2014
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Songs are touchstones; expressions of personal thoughts, emotions or memories.  An outpouring of experiences.  Songs can transport and inspire and also energize.  Songs can also help the writer and the listener process emotions of loss or grief.
Actress and singer Lea Michele had been working on her new album, Louder, many months before the tragic and sudden death of her boyfriend, actor Cory Monteith, who died from a toxic mixture of heroin and alcohol.  Michele and Monteith also connected professionally, playing high school sweethearts on Fox’s award winning series, Glee.With the recent release of Louder, Michele is giving … Read More

40 Ways To Lose The Clutter

March 7th, 2014
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No matter how hard I try to keep my stuff under control somehow it doesn’t behave. Day by day I try to throw out papers, mail, and other stuff that has outlived its welcome but still there is always more stuff to deal with or organize.  Not all of it is important stuff, but still it’s stuff that I don’t want to buy again.  Here’s my fear and maybe you can identify with it: once I throw out certain things, I’ll find I immediately need it. Sweet readers, what is a person to do?  How do you deal with your… Read More

Willing To Wonder

February 27th, 2014
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I do not at all understand the mystery of grace — only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.           ~ Anne Lamott… Read More

Getting In Gear

February 24th, 2014
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The calendar still says February but the warm temperatures this weekend offered me hope that Spring is close to arriving in my area of the world. I think my neighbors felt the same way because all weekend I saw them emerging from their homes of hibernation, waving hellos and walking around their yards picking up recently fallen branches and small sticks and checking out winter’s damages.  It was also nice to see the baby brigade out and about with strollers and young toddlers in tow.  While doing my errands, everyone seemed to be energized by the warm and shining sun. … Read More

A Navajo Prayer

February 19th, 2014
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As we embrace a new day. . . Contra Costa County, California Photo Courtesy of Flickr A Navajo Prayer In beauty may I walk. All day long may I walk. Through the returning seasons may I walk. On the trail marked with pollen may I walk. With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk. With dew about my feet may I walk. Planting Fields Arboretum  Long Island New York With beauty may I walk. With beauty before me may I walk. With beauty behind me may I walk. With beauty above me may I walk. With beauty below me may… Read More

Your Life, Your Movie

February 17th, 2014
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“Stay In Your Own Movie” ~ DeVon Franklin When my son was a young child, he would talk about going to various friend’s houses to play and how wonderful their house was, how great their snacks were and how nice their parents were and how perfect everything always seemed when he was there at whatever friends house he happened to be.  Sometimes he would even tell me that the parents of some of his friends never even ever argued.  Ever. First I told him that they were waiting for him to leave so they could have their argument and then… Read More

It’s Snowtime!

February 13th, 2014
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After days of hearing the local weather people forecast that lots of snow was headed our way, it really happened!  Flakes began to fall around 7 pm last in Washington, DC and it remained steady throughout last night and continues into this morning. I measured 14 inches of snow outside my door and I have yet to see a snow plow come into my neighborhood.  Oh well. . .  The federal government is shut down and so are schools along with most businesses. Yes, my friends, a day off from work is a healing day!! Here’s what my part of… Read More

Strength Through Sharing

February 10th, 2014
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Sharing my stories, and those of others, can entertain, offer strength and inspiration and sometimes minimize the isolation that is felt in relationships or personal crisis.  I share to bond, to reach out, to reveal that I am vulnerable just like you. No one knows when someone else’s story will unexpectedly touch a life and help another person gain a new perspective on grief, a subject people they know about but in fact they don’t.  Someone else’s words can bring new understanding to the issues of life and death,  of physical and emotional survival and help you see things differently.… Read More

Ina Garten’s Roasted Eggplant Spread

February 7th, 2014
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I am tired of wearing layers of clothing. Black and grey, grey and black.  Thin T-shirts under sweaters, sweaters over sweaters, vests over sweaters, socks inside socks, scarves over turtlenecks.  I think you are getting the picture of what it takes to stay warm when a polar vortex is happening.  I am more than ready to chuck my winter coat and boots and break out my fun clothes, my jammin’ summer clothes. But the calendar tells me otherwise.  For now, I must go with warmth because snow and ice and brisk winds will still be hanging out in my area… Read More