“Different Views” their upbringings and lives to this point were very similar; they both knew good and bad, happiness and sorrow but, they chose to walk through life very differently. his house and life were full; overfull really, but he was like an empty vessel; his heart devoid of love, not believing in the possibility of meaningful human […]
Category Archives: My Journeys
I’m aware, so often, of the fragility of each moment (this one is slipping away as I finish this sentence). Most of us assume so much: that we’ll still be breathing at the end of this day, that our loved ones will continue to be part of our lives, that we’ll have food to eat […]
The waves crash onto the shore as I walk on the deserted beach not long after the sun has decided to grace us, once again, with her morning majesty. Litter—empty plastic cups, a beat-up cooler, two broken chairs, a few beer bottles—carelessly left behind by fellow humans, stands out hideously in the otherwise perfection of […]
Almost every day, I talk with someone about life. Yeah, I know, that’s a really enormous topic but those conversations aren’t usually about tackling “the big picture”; just little clips of it. I realize that what I write about is often insignificant in the grand scheme of our planet (and I never want to lose sight of the […]
January is the month my Dad passed back to spirit side. He was an amazing man. This is part of the eulogy I wrote for his funeral twenty years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday….. It was Christmas Eve, 1966—a year with a storm so huge we couldn’t open the back door. Dad was […]
For those who feel despair and those who offer hope; for those who are scared and those who show love, and for those who are lost and those who guide the way, these poems are for you. FINDING HOPE worlds collide the past and the present slamming into each other— painfully, without regard for the […]
For some, “New Year’s Resolutions” are an annual part of closing one calendar year and moving onto the next. Others never participate in that practice. For many of us, it’s haphazard. Some years we’re “all in”—creating a list of what we want to change or accomplish; what we resolve to do. Other years, we simply roll […]
What I usually see is simply a mirage—an illusory construct created by my imagining. It seems like the beginning and end of reality because that’s as far as my human brain usually takes me. But, what I assume are concrete boundaries are simply my own limitations. When I look closely, however, and choose to consider what’s beyond […]
I woke up, brushed my teeth, threw on a t-shirt and pair of yoga pants and headed out for a walk with Vero, my little rescue dog. It was 6:50 on an absolutely perfect Sunday morning. Vero scampered as we trekked up the hill (yep, he actually scampers); him stopping often to smell something, me […]
I was pulling weeds, outside my front porch, on a beautiful summer night before the dark swept away the light. I had a purpose—remove the weeds in order to allow the plants I want there to have a chance to grow. Larry (my husband) sat with me, weeding too. He (a significantly more structured person than me) is pretty methodical. […]
Did you ever play hopscotch as a child? It was one of those activities that required very little: a piece of chalk, a flat stone and a couple of other “ready to play a game” children. 1. First, we’d draw the blocks (“the court”) with a piece of chalk, and number the squares. 2. Next, […]
It seems like we expend an awful lot of energy trying to “fit in”, which can mean a lot of different things depending on where you are right now. It changes significantly depending on who you’re with and is often fueled by the winds of just a few. I’m also aware that many of us […]
Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of “things”, so what I did have mattered—including my plastic doll named Sharon. The first time she started falling apart, my Dad put her back together with electrical tape. Over the next couple of years, she required quite a bit of that black tape. Did I think that made Sharon […]
Seven years ago, I was encouraged by my dear friend, Betsy, to join a Habitat For Humanity, “Women Build” committee. Our group was brainstorming fund-raising ideas and Annie, a member of our team (and now a close friend), came up with the concept for “She Nailed It!”—an all women, relay nail-hammering competition, that not only […]
Five Really Short Stories 1. While I waited for a friend, I sat at a tiny bistro table, with a cup of cinnamon-plum tea. Two women sitting close to me were talking. One of them said to the other, “you really have a servant heart.” It was expressed so simply. She didn’t say, “you give so […]
THE PENDULUM hurrier and hurrier i run, racing through daylight, before twilight dances on our earth the pendulum swings… i used to try to give the right answers now i remember to ask the right questions fueled by the knowledge that the light will fade, that the dark will come, that my days will be […]
During a flight to Florida, I sat between two women. The one on my left was 77 years old. She and her husband were traveling from Quebec. She asked to borrow my wrap because she was cold (she also had her right arm pretty much on my lap the entire time) and she told me about her […]
The box is elegantly wrapped with two layers of perfectly tied ribbon. It’s shiny and beautiful and creates a hushed, “what do you think could be in that beautiful package?” Next to it, sits an obviously previously used, dented and taped at the corners box with a stick-on bow, slapped on the top. Have you ever been […]
You’re a third-grade child and you decide that you’re going to save your “special”, “important” papers in a plain folder. You write your name on it and start carrying that folder around with you wherever you go. One day you’re walking down the street and a couple of pages blow out of The Folder. You […]
Good Morning Beautiful Friend. How are you my Precious Daughter? You are so Creative! You’re a Worthless Loser. You are such a Clumsy Jerk! How can you be so Stupid and Ugly? You did a Wonderful job! How can you always be so Generous? You’re a Valuable team member. You were an unwanted Mistake. Why are you so Useless? Get lost you Freak! Your […]
The bright day turned suddenly, with total abandon, handing her reins over to the sky; moving from bright to dark in just a few moments. As rain crashed against windows, lights flickered then went off, thunder rolled, and temperatures plummeted 20°. Tumultuous, screaming nature dances without restraint, reminding me of a human displaying every emotion in one day: […]
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 […]
What usually seems like just yesterday (but sometimes feels like a lifetime ago), I was a young, single mother raising two beautiful daughters. We were—by the standards we in our country judge wealth—destitute. I had a meager job and was putting myself through college at night. We lived in a little cape cod. We didn’t […]
My Mom died in 2009. I miss her daily. We loved each other and were very close, and I’m aware that isn’t the reality in many families. She was diagnosed with colon cancer, and two weeks later, she was gone. Not gone exactly, but no longer on this earth plane. I was distraught when she […]
In our humanness, we often get caught up in the “things of this world.” That’s typical. (I use “typical” instead of “normal” as much as possible because, how the heck can we dictate what “normal” is?) Many of us have so many possessions. We work hard to acquire these things; we treasure them; we boast about them; […]
peace full home®—intentional living 