parenting

Friends, the key to longevity?

“In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. They keep the young out of mischief; they comfort and aid the old in their weakness, and they incite those in the prime of life to noble deeds.” ~Aristotle Driving late at night, you are tired and looking for a place to rest. […]

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It Takes Patience and Wisdom Not to Break that Zipper

“I believe managing is like holding a dove in your hand. If you hold it too tightly you kill it, but if you hold it too loosely, you lose it.”  ~Tommy Lasorda   It was just a thread, just a tiny thread, and I really couldn’t see why it was posing such a problem.   Patience […]

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All work and no play…the secret to society’s failings?

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” ― Plato Mac and Nano are two funny fellas.  When we arrive at Nano’s to visit, Mac is literally wiggling like a worm in his excitement.  As soon as the leash is unlatched from his collar, Mac […]

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Don’t be Mean

“She said, ‘I walked out of Auschwitz into life…I will never say anything that couldn’t stand as the last thing I ever say.” ~Benjamin Zander, Lessons from Auschwitz   Today, I will speak good words.  It’s that simple, after all, isn’t it?  I just decide I want to speak kindness into others’ lives, and it […]

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Following the Stepping Stones

“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.  You must travel it by yourself.” ~Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass Our neighbors laid a beautiful stone path in their back yard not long ago, and I love to look at it when I am standing in my own yard, which is scattered with […]

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Presents or Presence, Every Day

“I wear the chain I forged in life….I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.” ― Jacob Marley’s ghost; Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol      Heading out of the house, an update from someone […]

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Telling Your Story…

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”  Maya Angelou       “Everyone has a story,” I remarked to my friend as she blessed my heart over learning things about me she didn’t know.       “We both know that,” she responded.  We don’t have to know much to […]

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Fathers and the Women Who Do Their Jobs

“Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating…too often fathers neglect it because they get so caught up in making a living they forget to make a life.” ― John Wooden, Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court      Sitting in meetings, talking with friends, listening to strangers, I […]

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A Response of Compassion

Just short of a week, Christopher Smithburg was missing. People volunteered to join the hunt to find him, officers spent extra hours working to find him, and praying folk prayed for his safe return. On the Tuesday following his Thursday disappearance, he was found. And everyone rejoiced. Or did they? When I was probably seven […]

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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…