Have you ever watched someone live with a terrible situation, and then said, “I could never do that”? I remember the words as if I had spoken them yesterday. My friend, Betty, was caring for her father-in-law during his terminal illness. He had moved in with them...
Advice we’ve all heard: Expect the unexpected. But is that really possible? If we expect the unexpected, doesn’t that mean it’s no longer unexpected? To expect the unexpected is to be flexible, to be prepared for options we may not have intended to plan for. For the...
Once upon a time I was the Vice President of Human Resources for an international insurance company. The corporate rat race consumed all my energies. Writing for publication was a vague dream that belonged to another life – a life far removed from my reality. Twenty...
The National Bureau of Economic Research has declared the recession to be over. According to their data, it ended in June, 2009. But don’t be surprised if fourteen million unemployed people disagree. Still, even for those who have found jobs and are part of the...
Planner? Check! Calendar? Check! Schedule? Check! Lists? Check! As you might imagine from the above, I write things down, I plan ahead, and I have an orderly (and perhaps a bit compulsive) life. Spontaneity is not one of my strongest characteristics! But I’ve been...
I’ve been thinking about friends and friendship recently. I love being a friend. I love doing for my friends. But I find it difficult to accept when friends do for me. There, I’ve said it. I want to help, not be helped. I don’t mind inconveniencing myself, but I am...
Last Saturday, a group of us went on a mysterious outing. All the planners would say is that we had to dress casual, wear all-white, and make sure we wore comfortable shoes – preferably sneakers. The four of us met at 9:00am (well, almost 9am – I was late! 😳 )....
All my life I’ve heard people say money cannot buy happiness. Are they wrong? Two professors at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs set out to determine whether the saying is true. They analyzed 450,000 survey responses to learn if money...
People post the cutest, funniest, and wisest things on Facebook. Two weeks ago, fellow writer Lisa Jordan wrote on her Facebook page: “Typing with a Band-aid on is like talking with a mouthful of Novocaine.” I chuckled at her simile (after I looked up simile and...
Everyone thought they knew Carly. Her family, her doctors, her therapists, even her twin sister. Everyone was wrong. Carly is a teenage girl with autism. For eleven years, her family loved and cared for her. They provided her with all the therapy she needed, but she...
Handling Disappointment The year 2020 started with such potential. New year. New possibilities. To say it has...
Stories are told of children traumatized when they learn Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny are not real. But what...
Why is quiet such a rare thing in our world? Consider that: when we get into our cars, one of the first things we do...