I woke up at 4:30 one morning last weekend, and couldn’t get back to sleep. Everything going on in my life crowded into my brain, as it often does during especially busy spells. When that happens, I know the tips and tricks I need to utilize to push things out of my mind so I can get some more sleep, but frankly, it felt like too much of an effort. So I decided to get up and get a few things done. I figured that [...]
“The sun’ll come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there’ll be sun…” I smiled as I listened to a powerhouse voice belting out the popular song from the musical, “Annie.” But I wasn’t at the theatre experiencing it live, or listening to a CD of the soundtrack in my car or home. I was in the checkout line at the grocery story. The singer – whom I couldn’t even see at first because she was so tiny and was on the other side [...]
I always enjoy getting feedback about my column, especially when people mention something helpful they learned while reading it, or a powerful memory it brought out in them. Occasionally, the feedback I receive actually moves me to tears. That happened this week, when I read an email from a friend that I haven’t seen in a long time. What she said was so eloquently expressed that I emailed her back to ask if I could include it here pretty much word-for-word. She graciously agreed. She [...]
A friend of mine was visiting recently, and stayed with us for a week. My son was here, too, taking a week off after two intense years of going to school and working full time. In a way, it was just like old times, when my kids were growing up and both still living at home. And although everyone said, “Don’t go to any trouble, we’ll be fine,” – and I know they meant it – I still fixed some big breakfasts and fancy dinners, [...]
“You never cease to amaze me with your over-abundant life. Wow! You are living the Dream!” That was the message I got last week in an email from a cherished friend whom I’ve known since high school. She reads my column online, and was commenting on one I wrote a few weeks ago about attending a Hollywood red-carpet event: a Book Launch and Gala for “Fearless Women, Visions of a New World.” In the column, I also mentioned my trip to Uganda last fall – [...]
“I love you from here to heaven!” That’s what my friend Lucy always tells her twin grandsons. In a way, she’s doing the same thing many of us did when our children or grandchildren were small – spreading our arms out as far as we could while answering our own question of “Do you know how much I love you?” with a stretched-out “Soooooo much.” Or reaching up to the sky, proclaiming “Soooooo big,” as we let our toddlers know how grown-up they were becoming. [...]
A few things I did last week that I have never done before in my life: I walked – and was photographed on – the red carpet at a Hollywood Gala; I attended a baby shower at the home of a Ugandan family living in California; I flew on an official “red eye,” leaving LAX after midnight and returning to Minneapolis just after 6 o’clock on Monday morning. Something I did last week that I have done before – and, in fact, have been doing [...]
I didn’t ask for a message or a miracle, but that’s what I got. I was sitting on the sofa in my family room, doing my prayer exercise. This is a ritual – part prayer, part journal, part asking God for advice – that grew out of a class I once took. Now it’s something I do every morning. The past few weeks had been extremely busy, with the kind of work that made me feel like I was taking one step forward and two [...]
I attended a Bridal Shower on Saturday, and a Super Bowl party on Sunday, so last weekend was especially social and enjoyable. The shower felt almost like a high school reunion. Well, more like a twist on a high school reunion. The bride-to-be is the daughter of a dear friend of mine, someone I met when my family first moved to Chanhassen almost thirteen years ago. We met through volunteer work at the middle school and the high school in which our kids were enrolled, [...]