Pushing Those Emotional Buttons

September 30th, 2013
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I have three sisters and two brothers who are younger than me.  Yes, I am the oldest of six children and we are very close in age.  Growing up and living with such a cast of loved ones has made, and continues to make for many great stories and many great memories.
I would say I talk to at least one of my sisters every day and sometimes I talk to all three of them during the coarse of one day.  That’s a lot of yakking, right?  Not really because we also email and text each other.
In our own … Read More

Can You Hug Too Much?

September 20th, 2013
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Hugs……They’re so healing!We hug when we see someone we really like and haven’t seen in a while; we hug when it’s time to say good-bye. We hug to show we care; we hug to let the other person know we are on their team. We hug to send a special message to another person that they are not alone.  They have a friend; someone who cares what happens to them. We hug to comfort.  We hug to love. We hug because we are human and part of a larger community. We are here to hug.  Each other.  All the time.… Read More

A New Place To Live

August 26th, 2013
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Good Morning Fantastic Readers!This past weekend was interesting and productive and I hope yours was too!  The weekends just fly by wayyyyy too quickly don’t they? Part of my weekend was spent visiting a family member.  In the course of my visit, I could tell we were going to fall into our usual conversational trap of going over the same ground that we have covered many times before.  You know what I mean, right?  The person brings up a certain subject and you know what they’re going to say and you try to change their mind or at least get… Read More

Road Trip — Traveling Alone

June 27th, 2013
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I was chatting with one of my friends recently and catching up with the happenings in her life.  We hadn’t spoken for a few months so there was a lot to talk about.  Her husband died about three years ago and she was telling me about the adjustments and bumps in the road that her new life was presenting for her. One big issue was vacation. Sounds great, right?  Easy, right? Just do it, right? Welllllll, it’s not as easy as it sounds if you are still getting used to the idea that you are doing things by yourself.  She… Read More

Fast & Sweet

June 18th, 2013
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Down the street from my office, there once was an organic salad carry-out place, sort of similiar to Chop’t but not as inventive.  It went out of business many months ago and I have been watching the empty store to see what kind of business would open up in its place. My office friends and I have been discussing what we would like to see go in there (Panera got my vote) and we all assumed that the next restaurant would be serving something in the same vein as salads, and if not salads, then something healthy for people to… Read More

Keeping Love In Your Heart

May 29th, 2013
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The best and most beautiful things in the world  cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.                                     ~ Helen Keller The human heart is an amazing organ isn’t it?  We fall in love, break up, and then perhaps fall in love over and over again, testing the resiliance of our courageous yet vulnerable hearts. Somehow, throughout our lives, we ride this emotional rollercoaster and our hearts manage to survive the ride and keep on beating. When a relationship doesn’t work out, we are sad but eventually we pick ourselves up and carry on until… Read More

Socially Yours

May 22nd, 2013
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Stories are constantly written about why we should strive to unplug from our computers, ipads, Smartphones and other electronic devices but I read a work colleague’s Facebook post yesterday and was reminded of how amazing social media truly is. I work with a young guy named Aaron Knights and he was at the incredibly tender age of seven when his beloved father died from cancer at the age of 38.  Think about that for a minute.  Think about what you were like when you were seven.  The idea of losing a parent at that stage of your life is profound… Read More

Anderson Cooper & His Mom

April 8th, 2013
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I recently watched parts of  the Anderson Live! episodes that explored surviving loss and rebuilding your life in the aftermath.I found it touching and almost too private to watch Anderson Cooper and his mother talk about their personal reactions to the sudden loss of two very close loved ones from their lives.  I really wanted to know what they did to survive such shocking and tragic deaths but at the same time their thoughts were so candid that I almost wondered if they were aware that the cameras were rolling.It’s courageous and incredibly helpful for the greater good when celebrities… Read More

Public Tears

March 21st, 2013
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I’ve done it in the grocery store in the applesauce aisle.  I’ve also done it while walking down 17th Street, NW and on the Metro platform at Farragut North. What have I done? Crying in public.  And you know what? When I was doing it, I could have cared less about who I ran into or what I looked like.  I was in the throes of grief and I had either heard a song that reminded me of my husband or was coming from a situation where no one acknowledged my loss or what was happening to me. When I… Read More