Photographic Memories

May 3rd, 2018
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Memories-book-album

 

Recently I was attempting to de-clutter a room in my house when I came upon a small box of old photos.

Uh oh, I said to myself.  The box wasn’t marked so I had no idea what period of time these photos were from or who was captured on film.

I knew that taking the envelopes out and opening them would slow me down and perhaps even stop my project to get rid of stuff.

But still I went ahead.

I decided to roll the dice and walk down memory lane.

In general, I like to think of pictures … Read More

Thinking about Cupid

February 12th, 2016
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  In Roman mythology, Cupid is the son of Venus, the goddess of love and this coming weekend is all about Cupid, a funny and fickle little guy associated with the warm and fuzzy feelings of desire, affection and love! What is this thing called love?  Well, it’s one big powerful field of unbelievable emotion that practically knocks you over the first time you experience it.  Being in love and giving love are some of the most exhilarating feelings in the whole world and if I had my way we would all be feeling it as much as possible on… Read More

The Ever Expanding Thanksgiving Table

November 23rd, 2015
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For as long as I can remember, Thanksgiving in our family is about reaching out and sharing. During our childhood, my parents always reminded the six of us that we could invite anyone that we knew who might not have a place to go and might possibly be spending Thanksgiving alone. And they meant it. The Cranston Thanksgiving table always had room for more people.  For friends who couldn’t make it home to their families, for people who had no where else to go and for elderly relatives who had paid their dues in preparing Thanksgivings past and now needed… Read More

One Groovy Lavender Road Trip

October 16th, 2015
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  Road trips are part of the American way of life. Maybe this weekend you, your friends or family have a road trip planned to take advantage of this transitional time of year: picking out your special pumpkins, checking out the leaves turning glorious reds and yellows or just visiting a new destination. Road trips can help us recharge our inner selves.  You know.  That inner voice.  That oh so precious deep core of ourselves that keeps us one with the horizon and helps us process the ups and downs of this beautiful and crazy trip called life. I know… Read More

Beautiful Kindness

August 3rd, 2015
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    When you live by yourself as I do, you learn how to do a lot of things for yourself. It just becomes second nature. I don’t like to bug people to ask for help, so my first instinct is see if I can do it on my own. When my husband was alive he was not really handy around the house so I took over some of the outside chores and I also took over the bills as his illness took away much of his energy. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining; just explaining how a shifting… 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

Confessions of A Mediocre Widow By Catherine Tidd

December 20th, 2013
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The title of Catherine Tidd’s new book suggests she is a mediocre widow. Don’t believe it for one second. Catherine Tidd is quite the opposite.  Catherine Tidd is in fact a courageous, smart and very funny woman in search of herself and an entirely different life while raising three young children after the death of her beloved husband, Brad, in a tragic motorcycle accident in 2007. Her book is refreshing and down-to-earth and is full of painful and funny personal insights about what happened to her after the death of her spouse: the hospital, the funeral, her in-laws, the whole… Read More

Developing A Grief Pill

December 9th, 2013
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I just read that the pharmaceutical industry is researching the development an anti-depressant pill for people who are grieving. Hmmmmm…. My gut feeling when I first read this story about the availability of a so-called grief pill in The Washington Post was that it seemed rather predatory of the pharmaceutical industry to be focusing its scientific expertise and vast financial resources on people when they are at the most vulnerable and sometimes lowest points in their lives. I vividly remember the competing emotions I felt after my husband died.  Raw pain and numbness.  Exhaustion and adrenaline.  On top of all… Read More

No Lifeguard On Duty

November 14th, 2013
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If you had told me ten years ago that it would take me this long to navigate my conflicting feelings of loss and truly come to grips with the fact that my husband died, he’s not coming back and I’ll never see him again, I would have thought you were smoking something and totally out there. In the beginning, I was just trying to survive which meant working a full-time job and raising a thirteen-year-old boy by myself.  I honestly didn’t think beyond the day I was in.  That’s all I could manage.  I constantly told myself that other women… Read More