As I sit here at the hospital tonight, following my daughters second ACL surgery that took place earlier today, I am trying to reflect on what lessons I have learned in my life today so I can share those thoughts with all of you. It’s funny how just sitting around in a hospital waiting room […]
There is huge power in the examples set by the people we surround ourselves with. Tonight I want to share a story of one of the great examples in my life. My daughter Ashley is 17 years old. For those of you who have followed my blog for a time, you are aware that last […]
All of us have worries and concerns in life. Things we are scared of. Things we are dreading. Worries about what “might” happen or what “might not” happen. It seems that there is a truly endless supply of things to spend our time being worried about. Yet, at the end of the day does the […]
I have always been a firm believer in the power our thoughts possess. I believe that our thoughts very much control our feelings. I also believe that we have total control of our own thoughts. Therefore, we ultimately have the ability to control our own feelings by controlling our own thoughts. If you depend on […]
Sometimes we get so busy living our lives that we forget to slow down enough to make time for our friends. I have been guilty of that myself over the years, especially with working such crazy hours for so many years of my life. Taking time off this summer to spend with my family has […]
I would guess that we have all seen the bumper stickers that say “Mean People Suck.” And the truth is that I couldn’t agree more. I have little tolerance for mean people. I just don’t. I don’t think there is ever a good excuse to be mean or hurtful to another person. Sure we can […]
Wouldn’t life be so much easier if we could make all our decisions with a little game of “Eeny, meeny,miny, moe”. Seriously! How cool would that be? And how much less stress would we have throughout our day when decisions have to be made?! Yeah, well it’s too bad life doesn’t work that way if […]
Life is full of unexpected events, changes, and uncertainty. Sometimes those changes are exciting and wonderful, and sometimes they are devastating, painful and hard. C.S. Lewis is my favorite author. I have learned many important life lessons by reading his books. One of his quotes that has helped me tremendously as I have dealt with […]
Perfection. It is an intimidating word for sure. One which can be the cause of discouragement and anxiety for many who might feel they are constantly falling short of achieving it. I know because there was a time in my early adult years when I was one of those many feeling intimidated and discouraged that […]
This week we celebrate the Fourth of July, a day to celebrate Independence and Freedom for all people. July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by Congress. What an amazing event in the history of the world. And how much has taken place since that day. According to the US Census […]
“Freedom means that no one can stop you from doing what is right, or persuade you to do what is wrong.” – Dadi Janki What a great quote! Love, love, love that quote. Because I believe that with all my heart. We may not all have freedom in our circumstances, but we all have freedom […]
By the time I finish a long day of work my mind is pretty shot and my A.D.D. meds have started to wear off for the day – inevitably there always comes a point each evening where that combination leads to no chance of my being able to sit still and focus. Tonight I had […]
For those who do not have teenagers at home, the word Vacay means Vacation (according to my teen daughter anyway). I am still trying to learn the revised English language used by teens today – Deets means details, Deec means decent, Cray-cray means crazy, Tots means totally, and vacay means vacation. Spending last week at […]
In the brilliant words of Dr. Seuss: “Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.” As we head into a fabulous summer weekend I wanted to remind everyone to not let a single moment get away from you. Life is short and there is so much to do and enjoy! Make this weekend […]
Breathtaking – what a great word! It’s the best word I can think of when I drive up the road toward my home, set into the side of a beautiful mountain in Utah. The weather is amazing, the trees are green, the flowers are blooming and all I can think is…breathtaking! We don’t take enough […]
There are people in all of our lives that lift us up when we are down or help us through when times are tough. There are people in our lives who make us laugh and smile and make us feel better about ourselves. There are people in our lives that tell us we can do […]
“People who say that life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worthwhile. Get yourself a goal worth working for. Better still, get yourself a project. Always have something ahead of you to “look forward to“, to work for and hope for.” (Maxwell Malz). I don’t know […]
Ah yes, the famous words of Hannibal on the A-Team. There is little in life that is better than when a plan comes together, especially when the plan itself turns out to be far larger and expansive then any plan you had pictured in your own mind 🙂 Throughout the years of my life I […]
Tonight I took a group of teenage girls on a service project to go to an assisted living center to visit with a group of adorable, lovely Grandmas. We sat the group of our 16 and 17 year old girls in a circle with group of Grandmas, all of which were widows. We asked the […]
This weekend we celebrate Memorial Day in the U.S. It’s the day we remember those men and women who died serving in the military. It’s also become a day to honor all of those who were near and dear to our hearts that have passed on. People place flowers on graves and flags on graves […]
“I’ve learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.” -Martha Washington I very much believe that statement to be true. Our attitude about things is such a major determination of our happiness level in life. And we control our attitude by controlling […]
I learned long ago that if we try to judge ourselves by what others think, we will inevitably find ourselves constantly disappointed and sad, because it is literally impossible to please everyone. Not only that, but you have to realize that other people will never have all the facts of every detail of your life […]
So it is not very often that I would write about a quote from a sitcom as being a great life lesson, but this particular quote was so good that I haven’t been able to get it off my mind, so I figured I had better write about it today. It was a quote from […]
Yesterday I wrote my Forbes article on moving past your mistakes in life and I used a quote from the movie the Lion King. There is another quote from that movie that I can’t help but share today because I think it is so powerful. There is a part of the movie where we hear […]
Living in the moment is not always easy to do. It seems that we all have a tendency to focus our thoughts on our past mistakes and feel discouraged about them, or we focus our thoughts on a future that we wait to someday have. It seems that we rarely focus on our todays, our […]
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers, future mothers, grandmothers, mothers-in-law, nannies who play second mother, mothers who don’t or can’t have children of their own but who love children and provide mothering in one way or another, and single fathers who have to play the role of mother and father – so basically […]
This Sunday will be Mother’s Day, so I wanted to give everyone a reminder a few days early so you can start now picking out a special gift for the Mothers in your life. This is especially a friendly hint to all the husbands out there whose wives are raising your children :). Everyone has […]
“One day, a western anthropologist went to Africa to study the social behavior of an indigenous tribe. He proposed a game to the children and they willingly agreed to be part of it. He put a basket filled with fruits underneath a tree and told the children that whoever would reach the basket first would […]
I woke up this morning to the most amazing surprise. An email from a total stranger sharing a heartfelt, sincere, yet simple thank you for the positive impact my blog was having on his life. I was blown away at the impact this man’s simple, kind words had on me. I was genuinely choked up […]
Our agency is an amazing gift, and a scary gift all at the same time. Having the ability to make your own choices in life is so empowering and exciting. At the same time, it opens you up to make dumb choices, bad decisions, and even gives you the ability to hurt others by […]
