Columns – Page 26 – FindYourBuriedTreasure

Tears and Prayers for Notre Dame

My first-ever trip abroad was with a tour group to Paris in 2005. We had a full and glorious itinerary, visiting the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Monet’s Garden, Sacre Coeur, and other famous and not-so-famous-but-still-wonderful sites. Sadly, Notre Dame was not among them. It was on our original itinerary, but the day we left the States for Paris was the day Pope John Paul II died. In the following days and weeks, Catholic churches around the world – including Notre Dame, of course – [...]

By bettyliedtke|April 20th, 2019|Columns, Faith, Holidays, Travel|Comments Off

Guitar Lessons

I just bought a guitar. The decision wasn’t totally out of the blue, although it wasn’t exactly on my bucket list, either. I’ve always enjoyed music. I took piano lessons when I was in grade school, and I played French horn in the band from sixth grade through high school. I bought a guitar during my freshman year in college – inspired by a girl in my dorm who played the guitar and offered to teach me a few chords, and the fact that there [...]

By bettyliedtke|April 12th, 2019|Columns, Gifts and Talents, Music/Singing|Comments Off

The Power of the Pod

I was surprised – honored, but surprised – when a friend and former coaching client contacted me recently and asked if she could interview me for her podcast. I felt honored, because my friend is amazingly accomplished. She has a PhD and is an ordained minister. She is certified in several areas of healing arts, and has a thriving business helping and teaching others to live an authentic, happy, purposeful life. She has published a book, developed a spiritual growth app, and produced dozens of [...]

By bettyliedtke|April 6th, 2019|Buried Treasure, Coaching, Columns, Gifts and Talents, Health and Well-being, Making a Difference, Values, Writing|Comments Off

Driving Through Stormy Weather

It was just starting to drizzle as I got to my car after a meeting of my church group. I wasn’t carrying an umbrella, because it had been sunny and clear when the meeting started – although, to be honest, I rarely carry an umbrella anyway. If it looks like it’s going to rain, I usually just wear a jacket with a hood. As I got in my car, I could see dark, angry-looking clouds racing across the sky. There’s a nasty storm coming, I [...]

By bettyliedtke|March 31st, 2019|Columns, Faith|Comments Off

A Quiet Goodbye

A friend of mine told me a story the other day that she warned me was going to be sad, but uplifting at the same time. She had been working on a craft project, and had that on her mind as she was going up and down the stairs retrieving supplies from different areas of the house. Because she was concentrating on that, she almost didn’t hear the quiet voice that whispered something inside her head. It was her mother’s voice – her mother who [...]

By bettyliedtke|March 22nd, 2019|Columns, Faith, Family, Health and Well-being, Values|Comments Off

Coming home

Note from Betty: Sometimes, as I'm writing my blog, I know what I want to say but the words just won't cooperate. That's what happened last week, and by the time I got the words right it was almost time for this week's blog, so I just waited till today to post it. My apologies to those who were wondering why there was no blog post last week! “Gee, but it’s great to be back home.” That’s the opening line of a Simon and Garfunkel song [...]

By bettyliedtke|March 15th, 2019|Columns, Making a Difference, Travel, Uganda, Values|Comments Off

A cold reception and a warm welcome

I rarely catch colds – maybe once every few years or so. So naturally, I came down with one a week before we were scheduled go visit our new granddaughter. I blame my son for jinxing me. "Be sure you're getting enough Vitamin C," he said in a phone conversation a few weeks earlier. "You don't want to get sick right before you come to see the baby." What made him even think of this was the fact that his brother-in-law had been planning to visit [...]

By bettyliedtke|March 1st, 2019|Columns, Family, Travel|Comments Off

Warm Hearts Melt Winter’s Chill

When my husband retired and we moved to Georgia – after 40 years in the Chicago area and 18 years in Minnesota, with a few other locations in between – we often said that we’d go back to visit family and friends up north, but never in the winter. That was before our son and daughter-in-law had a baby – our first grandchild – in the middle of January, in Minnesota. We were only joking, of course – well, half-joking – when we talked about [...]

By bettyliedtke|February 22nd, 2019|Columns, Family, Travel, Values|Comments Off

The Write Combination

I’ve been in a number of writers groups over the years. Some focused on writing and feedback, others on the business aspect of writing. Some dealt with a specific genre or required a certain level of expertise, others welcomed writers of all types and all levels of experience. I just joined a new writers group, and I’m really excited about it. Many members of the group are published authors in a variety of genres, and everyone I’ve met so far has provided thoughtful and helpful [...]

By bettyliedtke|February 16th, 2019|Accountability, Columns, Success, Uganda, Writing|6 Comments

A Resolution Report

Although I wouldn’t expect anyone to notice, there was something missing for me at the beginning of the year. Ever since 2001, when I first began writing a weekly newspaper column, I started each year with a column or blog about my New Year’s Resolutions. (Yes, I’m one of the people who still makes them.) But this year, I didn’t. I don’t mean I didn’t make a New Year’s Resolution, just that I didn’t write about it. The reason had nothing to do with the [...]

By bettyliedtke|February 8th, 2019|Accountability, Achieving Dreams and Goals, Columns, Holidays, Success, Uganda|Comments Off

Stay Up To Date

Categories