Feeling Alone Last week my daughter Erin—a clinical trials & research nurse—sent me a very dismal report about loneliness. Then, I stumbled upon a piece on the same subject while researching something else. And, in the past few weeks, I’ve talked to at least four people about loneliness. When there’s a recurring theme, it’s a […]
Category Archives: Living Your Best Life
Many of us run through life, like a child in a proverbial candy store—grabbing this and that experience, not really tasting all the “flavors”—simply consuming life. When we’re racing through experiences, we aren’t fully participating in them. We’re simply snapping screen shots as we jump from one thing to another. Because there’s so much going […]
Whenever I wasn’t with clients yesterday, I was outside pressure washing our deck. This is an annual ritual—one that’s made even more necessary because of my beloved locust tree (“The Tree”). The Tree is very messy. Each spring, seedpods fall creating a lot of residual muck to get rid of. But, in spite of the […]
Editing—a fundamentally necessary process to get to the heart of the matter; to revise or expunge or correct When you watch a movie or read a book—or a post like this—it’s likely been edited. Without editing, there may be typos, grammar issues, inconsistencies, and the absence of a through-line (the common thread that ties it […]
There are lines (sometimes very fine) between embracing fully, accepting, settling and giving up. Today, let’s talk about giving up. It’s easy to imagine abandoning hope when you: feel scared or vulnerable, hide in the shadows, don’t have the support of those who are “supposed” to love you, are victimized or minimized or give up […]
Priority definition: that one thing which takes precedence over all else; what we give foremost, and special, attention to. We’ve lost the idea of having a priority in life. Even the plural— priorities—refers to two to four things, not the dozen (or hundred) we have on our “this is what I must do” lists. If you […]
How often do we give ourselves permission to “be”— to walk past the “to do” list, to ignore the insistent demands of technology, to take the time to be fully with others, or ourselves or God, to be okay, to simply be? One day, when I had no scheduled client appointments, I chose to let the […]
We often have a myopic view of the world, which limits us from “seeing” outside our own—frequently very limited—life. This narrow perspective leads to behavior that can be anything from inconsiderate to downright mean. We get so caught up in our reality that we don’t “see” how we sometimes behave. I truly believe that “nice” is underrated. I also believe […]
awareness As I back the car out of the garage, the thermometer moves down to 28°. I’m aware that as winter progresses I adapt to the cold. What would have been shocking in the middle of July is now simply part of the ebb and flow of the season. I get used to it. It […]
January 16, 2017 a note to God: Hi God, It’s a New Year. The last one flew by faster than the previous ten, and much faster than the twenty before that. The first thirty—well, they seemed to meander slowly; like a lazy river taking its time, enjoying the scenery. I know, that as we have more […]
In the quest for peace full living, we have to embrace all of life—not just the parts that are amazing or delightful or make us happy. For some of us that awareness can be a tough pill to swallow. For a long time I believed that if I just shoved the bad away—then buried it […]
Many people—who have never spent a day behind bars—live in self-imposed prisons where they intend to serve out life sentences. Sometimes that’s because they’ve committed a heinous crime and, although not “found out”, they know what they’ve done and choose lifetime penitence. Some have been imprisoned by the words of others, when they’ve been told that […]
It was a quiet house this past weekend and on Saturday evening, my daughter, Erin came up so we could watch a movie together. It was a real tearjerker with an outcome we didn’t immediately anticipate. At the end we were both sobbing; a moment shared as we looked at reality through a different lens. […]
A sisterhood has traditionally been a community of nuns or other religious women. A sisterhood is also a group of women who are bound together through shared experiences, who—with a desire to live fully into their lives—are intentional about creating connections. Today, I’m going to write about the latter. This past weekend my faith community held a […]
Where do you find joy? Why does joy often seem so elusive? What is joy? “Joy” and “happiness” are not the same. Happiness is a response to something. We experience feeling happy when we’re having fun, spending time with people who make us smile, watching a funny movie, taking a vacation in a place we love, or even completing […]
For the past eight days I’ve been almost entirely absent from email, texts and phone calls. For some people, that would be catastrophic. For me, it was a reminder of how life used to be—when connecting with others, not physically with you, required sending mail or using a phone connected to a wall. Obviously, there are […]
I was woken from a deep sleep, in the very early morning, by thunder and lightning. I turned toward the window and watched and listened to the sound of nature. Lying there in the dark, I was fully aware of the gifts of sight and sound. Recently, I saw two video clips. The first was […]
“Love people and use things, not love things and use people.” I’m not sure who first coined this but, sadly, it can’t be said enough. Organization, and the lack of clutter, are an integral part of a calm, joyful home—or organization. It’s tough to get to Peace if you’re surrounded by chaos. That chaos can be created […]
Kintsugi (金継ぎ) is a Japanese word for repairing broken pottery with a special lacquer mixed with gold. The technique recognizes the history of the object, and visibly incorporates the repair into the piece. Rather than trying to disguise what could be considered flaws, attention is brought to them. The item that was broken, and glued […]
Today is Labor Day. This holiday was born out of a desire to celebrate the American labor movement, to honor the economic and social achievements of the worker, and to pay tribute to those whose contributions have helped to make our country prosperous and strong. The Knights of Labor and the Central Labor Union organized the […]
There are meals “big enough to feed the entire family”, books titled “Not Different Enough” and “Good Enough to Be Great”, and songs like “Can’t Get Enough” and “The World Is Not Enough”. We say things like: “I don’t have enough time.” “I’m not rich (powerful, successful, popular, important) enough.” “We didn’t do well enough.” […]
Extraordinary is simply ordinary with “extra” in front of it. Those five little letters change everything! On Friday evening my granddaughter, Lauren, started celebrating her eleventh birthday with eight of her best friends at a sleepover. My daughter, Sara, did a lot of planning, and it was a wonderful event with cake decorating contests, games, jumping on the trampoline, […]
The sky was blue and gray and white as I was driving this morning. Clouds hung in the atmosphere as if suspended by invisible wires. The sight was breathtaking and humbling simultaneously. It truly felt as if I was going to drive right through a giant canvas painted by the hand of God. If we […]
Do you ever feel like you “can’t find your voice”? Our world can be really loud. Right now, in this Presidential election year, it’s almost as if everything else is drowned out by the campaigns being waged. If you reside in a place like New York City, you’re probably used to the noise level. It’s simply part of the background. Even […]
A dear friend reached out to me and asked if I would talk about the fear that many of us are feeling. Jill wrote, “We want to know what’s going on in the world, but what we read and hear scares us, we want to let our kids play outside and explore their world but we […]
peace full home®—intentional living 