My husband and I were returning from an out-of-state trip. Our flight home was late Sunday night, after a long and busy day. As we approached our gate at the airport, we found just one seat open in a row of seven seats. Gentleman that he is, my husband motioned for me to sit down. I did, and as I looked around, I could feel my temperature rising. It wasn’t from the weather, but the fact that three of the seven seats were occupied not [...]
It was a beautiful, beautiful wedding. As the mother of the groom, I may be a bit biased, of course. But I know that everyone who was there was in full agreement. My son got married last weekend, in an outdoor ceremony on a sunny, gorgeous day. The reception was both rustic and elegant, although it doesn’t seem as though those two words would ever go together. There were some lovely touches I didn’t expect, like the sign near the entryway that said, “We know [...]
My birthday was last week, and I enjoyed the cards, emails and texts I received from family and friends. But what really amazed me were some of the “gifts” I received. One company, whose mailing list I am on, gave me a birthday gift of a 25% discount on a purchase from their online store. I had 48 hours to make the purchase. Other businesses offered buy-one-get-one-for-a-lesser-price options in honor of my birthday. One restaurant sent me a very generous $30 off the price of [...]
I still remember when the first Independence Day movie came out 20 years ago. We were living in Virginia at the time, and one of the things I remember most – even before seeing the movie – was reading a commentary someone had written about it in a small, local publication. She insisted we should see the movie as a wake-up call, and should be taking steps to prepare ourselves in case of an alien attack, because it was absolutely realistic and possible that we [...]
I’m getting ready to take a walk this summer – a very long walk. In fact, I’m planning to walk around the world. I won’t be doing this alone. I’ll be with a group of women who work out at the Curves in Chanhassen. Curves often sponsors events and activities that give us extra incentive to keep up or ramp up our exercising. Sometimes it’s a game, such as Bingo cards in which each square says something like “Work out three times this week” or [...]
“Take some time to stop and smell the roses.” We’re all familiar with this saying, telling us we should take time out from our busy lives to notice and enjoy the good things that are all around us. I’m sure most of us would acknowledge the wisdom of the advice, although few of us probably follow it on a regular basis. I thought about this recently after hearing a friend talk about how much she enjoyed taking walks with her daughter. They would walk along [...]
A soft, gentle rain was falling, the kind that makes me want to curl up under a fuzzy blanket and listen to mellow oldies on the radio. Or sit out on a screened-in porch with a glass of wine and a good book or an empty journal just waiting to be filled with my own thoughts and reflections. It was a great way to start the Writers Retreat I attended last weekend. The retreat was put on by the women writers group I belong to, [...]
It was a Freudian slip. I meant to say, “corporal works of mercy.” But “corporate works of mercy” is what came out instead. I was with several women in my Cursillo group, and we had just decided that we wanted to read a book together over the summer, and discuss it at our weekly meetings. We chose “Beautiful Mercy—Experiencing God’s Unconditional Love So We Can Share It With Others.” The book is a series of essays by different writers, each on the subject of one [...]