change

Expiration Dates Keep Life and Ideas Fresh

It’s really clear to me that you can’t hang onto something longer than its time. Ideas lose certain freshness, ideas have a shelf life, and sometimes they have to be replaced by other ideas. ~Alan Alda When my friend’s husband died, I wanted to do something helpful and useful, so I cleaned out her refrigerator.  We […]

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Living Beyond Balance

“I don’t like the word ‘balance.’ To me, that somehow conjures up conflict between work and family… as long as we think of these things as conflicting, we will never have happiness. True happiness comes from integration… of work, family, self, community.” Padmasree Warrior Balance is necessary in so many places, isn’t it?  I’ve been […]

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That Sneaky Thing Called Sadness

“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow There has been a lot of sad news lately. It isn’t really my sad news but that of folks I care about: Friends who are dealing with cancer and other […]

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Loving People Between Victory and Defeat

“At the time of the Silver Jubilee, I was a grumpy anti-monarchist. I didn’t celebrate and was appalled by the celebrations. In my idiocy, I missed out! I feel completely differently now compared with that time.” ~Helen Mirren A baby rolls over and there is rejoicing. Crawling gives way to the first step, it’s a celebration. […]

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Making Space in Life for What Really Matters

“The quality of your commitments will determine the course for your life.” ~Ralph Marston The computer is running low on space, the email account is flashing a warning that my storage is almost full, and my smart phone is behaving more like antiquated technology than the latest and greatest it claims to be. Furniture that was his family’s, […]

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Going with the Flow offers a Better Life

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” ― Lao Tzu The thought of not having a manicured yard never crossed my mind.  I’d watched my daddy spend lots of time trying to […]

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The Plight of Outsiders

“If you’ve ever had that feeling of loneliness, of being an outsider, it never quite leaves you. You can be happy or successful or whatever, but that thing still stays with you.”― Tim Burton Feelings aren’t facts, that’s true, but man oh man can feelings be our reality.  You’ve hit your thumb with the hammer […]

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Radically Renew Your Life!

Perhaps the earth can teach us As when everything seems dead And later proves to be alive.  —Pablo Neruda The monkey grass looks dead with its brown edges. The butterfly bush finally seems to have seen the last bit of life, offering no more protection to the birds who hid among the dying blossoms and […]

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Composing Life’s Picture

“The subject here is not at all clear. There is too much going on and the viewer is not being directed where to look. It’s easy, with interesting subjects like this, to try and include too much…” ~Darlene Hildebrandt The picture was actually very nice, but it was very busy, and I couldn’t decide where […]

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Lose the Label for a Better Look at Life

“Once you label me you negate me.” ~Soren Kirkegaard. Standing before the camera was an elderly woman holding a yellow star with some faint handwriting on it that I could not read. This woman, who was much older than I, stood before me on the screen, explaining that when she was a very young girl […]

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Thoughts to Encourage

Joy is the will which labors, which overcomes obstacles, which knows triumph.~ William Butler Yeats

Whether you think you can or think you can’t you’re right. - Henry Ford

The best way out is always through. ~ Robert Frost

Real difficulties can be overcome, it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. ~ Theodore N. Vail

Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

You must be the change you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi

Nothing helps like a good nap…

Birds are Beautiful

A Dog is Faithful…