Thanksgiving week… Work… Meal preparations… Beauty arriving home for her college break… Warren and Beauty and Big Guy off hunting to fill our freezer with fresh, lean meat… And a house we rent out to paint and pull up carpets and clean and scrub and hang new blinds…all in a matter of two days… And this… The joys of giving…Two gifts … Read More
Paesanos
Yesterday, I spent a gloriously exhausting day at a TEDx event, where I met with many wonderfully new and exciting ideas and people. One speech brought together those two entities in the form of a single word: Paesano. Paesano, as he told us, literally translates to countrymen or villager, but the truest essence of what it represents is friend. Not … Read More
What’s in a Miracle?
Photo via Sharlie’s Angels Miracle is such a tough word for those of us who have faced destruction and devastation. The miraculous is usually attributed to some variation of God’s Will, Plan, or Divine Intervention. In the wake of Gavin’s death and Warren’s subsequent affair, I hoped for a miracle of my own. Not your typical pleas for health, wealth, … Read More
The Gift of Receiving
I find great joy in giving. And following my recent surgery, I acknowledged how great it felt when friends delivered food to my back door. But there was more to that story. An uncomfortable more that made me stop and access my behavior. The third bearer of gifts sat down at the table and chatted with me as I scarffed down … Read More
On Marital Discord, Part III: Tips for Staying Together in Spite of Strife
As far back as March, journalists began talking about a Maria/Arnold reunion. And a few days ago, HuffPost Celebrity reported that Maria was recently seen wearing what looks like a wedding band. Is she taking Arnold Schwarzenegger back?The headline teases. These thoughts simultaneously ran through my mind. Who cares? Just leave them alone. And yet, I find myself watching. Secretly … Read More
Teaching Our Children to Fish
I’ve always called a spade a spade.A vagina a vagina. And a penis a penis. This morning I stumbled across a mother’s forum where a woman asks for pet names to call her children’s privates. She states that she always felt awkward when her mom used the word vagina, and she didn’t want to put her daughter through that discomfort. Oh, … Read More
Staying Married After a Second Affair
Last night I wrote this post, which was inspired by a piece about Bill Clinton’s sixty-sixth birthday. That article questioned if the former president could have known, the day he met then-President JFK, that he would someday succeed the great man. That question spawned another musing for me: Did it ever dawn on Bill that he might someday have a … Read More
Facing My Fears, Pema Chodron Style
“You focus on another person’s suffering and breathe it in,” a friend of mine told me about a Tonglen meditation group she recently participated in, “and then you breathe out compassion.” Her group’s attention had been directed to the victims, families, and friends of those affected by the recent Aurora, Colorado shooting rampage. I couldn’t comprehend this model from the purpose … Read More
Taking Stock of Bullying, It’s Much More Than a Facebook Issue
At the beginning of the school year, the students at our local high school spent a week of assemblies, presentations, and discussions, all on bullying. The hallways are plastered with pledge signs and anti-bullying campaign pieces. Earlier this year, my daughter was involved in a situation where classmates were talking poorly about her on Facebook because she had unfriended them. … Read More
Family Momentum
Yesterday, my beautiful daughter turned sixteen. So many years. So many smiles. Such a delightful part of my life, our lives, she has been. I have watched her grow into a stunning young woman. “You’re a swan,” I recently told her. And she is. Everywhere we go, people that knew her when she was younger stop and stare. “She’s soooo beautiful,” they … Read More