“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 [...]
A friend of mine, who is a school principal as well as a mom, was talking recently about how crazy and hectic May is. That reminded me of a column I wrote years ago, when my kids were still in school. I dug it out of my files and sent a copy to my friend and a few other moms – who said it described their lives right now, too. So if you’re a mom who’s just about at the end of her rope by [...]
I had just finished a presentation for the staff at a Senior Living Community, when one of the attendees came up to me and said, “You know, you could be a pastor.” I was flattered by her words, and more than a little surprised. No one’s ever said anything like that before. People have told me they were inspired or motivated by my programs, or that I gave them a new way of thinking or looking at things. Some later told me of changes they [...]
A friend of mine was a Hall of Fame gymnast back in her college days. This came up recently while we were discussing something that’s been in the news a lot lately – the powerful and addictive pain medications often prescribed for severe injuries, or surgery to treat those injuries. The kind that many athletes incur, as well as entertainers such as Prince whose acrobatics on stage can be just as demanding on their bodies, and can cause just as much damage. That’s not the [...]
I got a strong dose of motivation and inspiration over the weekend. It happens every year around this time, which is when our Toastmasters District holds its Spring Convention. A highlight of the convention is the International Speech Contest, which brings together the winners of ten Division contests. These are people who have already won at three levels of competition, so you can imagine how polished and persuasive their speeches are by the time they reach the District level. What I’ve always found fascinating is [...]
“Where were you when you heard the news?” Only a few historical events evoke that question, events of such magnitude that people remember exactly where they were and what they were doing at the time. The bombing of Pearl Harbor. The assassination of JFK. The attack on the Twin Towers. And now there’s another one. The death of Prince won’t be in the history books in the same way as those other events, but – especially for Minnesotans, and in particular those of us living [...]
It is our most debilitating weakness that often turns into our greatest strength. Our most shameful secrets that bring about our most lasting peace. And our deepest sorrows that lead to our greatest joys. But not until we share them. For most of us, this goes against every instinct we have. The awful experiences in our past – whether they are things we’ve done, things others have done to us, or devastating and embarrassing events that just happened – the last thing we want to [...]
I laughed as I read the email, which began, “Dear Secretary of Nice.” The email was from a friend who’s also a regular reader of my column, and her salutation was a reference to a column I wrote a month ago, in which I suggested we could do with a “Department of Nice” in the federal government. And I assigned myself to be in charge of it. That idea came from a recent conversation with my husband and daughter. We were discussing the upcoming presidential [...]