Tag Archives: gratitude

Focus On The Lovable Moments

“A single misunderstanding is so poisonous, that it makes us forget the hundred lovable moments spent together within a minute.” Years ago I had a best friend who taught me a great life lesson. Whenever there was a situation where hurt feelings occurred and I got angry with someone he would stop me and point […]

Life is short, Live it well

Today we got word that a friend of ours, who we love and admire greatly, has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer which has spread throughout her body. It came as such a shock to hear the news about her because we ran into her and her husband just a few weeks ago and […]

True Friends

“Good friends care for each other…close friends understand each other, but TRUE FRIENDS stay forever…beyond words, beyond distance, beyond time…!” Many of us have friends in our lives over the years. Some friends we make as children and then lose contact as we grow older. Other friends we make as adults and stay in touch […]

The Four C’s:  Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy

“Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you […]

Shaking Things Up

Boredom…there is little worse…That is why every now and again you just need to shake things up a little in life. It’s so easy to get in the same old rut day after day, doing the same old things. Life becomes mundane and you start to lose that excitement and drive. You find yourself having […]

Love Isn’t Love Til You Give It Away

Do you remember how fun Valentine’s Day was when you were a kid? You would spend hours making your cute little cardboard mailbox out of the empty Quaker Oats container or an old shoe box. You would cover it with colored construction paper and then put cute heart stickers on it, and don’t forget the […]

Some People, Good People, And Extraordinary People

“Some people see the glass half empty. Good people see the glass half full. But extraordinary people are just grateful for the glass!”  That quote came today in the weekly email letter I get from my daughter Ashley on her mission and I loved it so much I had to share it with everyone. What […]

Groundhog Day Says We’re Going to Have To Make Our Own Sunshine

With all of the amazing technology we employ today it’s amazing the credibility we attribute to the shadow of a little brown rodent each Groundhog Day. But every year I admit that, I along with everyone else, wait to hear whether Phil saw his shadow or not. It never fails to bum me out when […]

Don’t let yourself take any of it for granted

This last week has been an absolute whirlwind! It has been back to back events for the Sundance Film Festival. I wish I could sit and write every amazing experience I have had this week but it would result in far too long of a blog for anyone to want to read. I will tell […]

Your life is your message to the world. Make sure it’s inspiring.

What impact do you want to have? How do you want to influence your world? In each of our lives, at some point we will find ourselves in a position of influence. It may be influence that comes as a result of a talent in filmmaking, or acting, or music, or writing, or speaking, or […]

Success Comes From Focusing On Things You Can Control

There are a million aspects to life that are out of our control. And focusing on things you can’t control is absolutely pointless…no matter how much you focus on them you can’t control them so why waste the energy? Success comes when we stop worrying about those factors and things that are out of our […]

The Power of One

“Never question the power of one! Throughout history it has been the actions of only one person who has inspired the movement of change.” – Steve Maraboli Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and I would be remiss if I didn’t express gratitude for the amazing life he lived and the example he set […]

Life is supposed to be Fun…The Joy is in the Journey

Today I want to write about JOY! And being HAPPY! Because I had a pity party for myself last night where I got all my tears and sadness out and I woke up today and decided that it is time for me to follow the advice my brilliant daughter Ashley gives me anytime I feel […]

“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most space in your heart.”

“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most space in your heart.” That quote from Winnie the Pooh is so true. In life it is those little things that are so meaningful to us and become our favorite memories. Growing up I remember our family dinners most. Every night we would all surround our huge […]

“Everybody deserves somebody who makes them look forward to tomorrow.”

Back when I was single someone shared this quote with me: “Don’t marry a man unless you would be proud to have a son exactly like him.” That really made me rethink the men I was dating in my life. I hadn’t thought of them in that light before. Would I be proud to have […]

Don’t Take A Single Moment For Granted

Yay! I am so excited that Christmas break has officially begun and both my kiddos come home from college tonight to spend the holidays back at home with us!  BEST PRESENT EVER!!! Having your family back together again is the absolute best gift in the world.  For me this will be our first Christmas together […]

Make a List and Check it Twice and Every Day!

Before I get into tonight’s blog topic I just wanted to share that last Friday night I was able to go to a huge Christmas concert which featured the star of the Disney animated feature film Frozen (one of my favorite Disney films), Santino Fontana who plays Hans in Frozen, singing with the world famous […]

Never Suppress A Generous Thought

In our cities so full of hustle and bustle it is amazing to watch how people are so absorbed in their own thoughts that they barely notice one another as they hurry past each other on the streets.  Often times we see someone lost or someone who dropped something on the ground and is struggling […]

December is the “Friday” of the Months

Seriously, don’t you just LOVE December! It really is like the Friday of the months…the month you look forward to all year and you relish it, wishing it wouldn’t have to end. It just seems like we spend more time with family and friends just being HAPPY during December, and it is so nice!  December […]

Stop and Thank the People Who Make A Difference in our Lives

On this week that we celebrate Thanksgiving, I cannot think of a better way to honor this holiday than to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives. When I stop and really think about all the people who have made a difference in my life I am overwhelmed with how […]

Life is Good when you keep things in Perspective

When life gets difficult or troublesome the best thing we can do is to step back and put things into proper perspective.  You can’t get hyper-focused on what is going wrong in the moment or it will feel like your entire world is crashing down whenever something difficult happens.  I like to think of it […]

Warning – This Might Make You Cry!

No doubt that the contents of this post may in fact lead you to cry.  It certainly made me cry!  I was watching the news a few days ago when I heard them announce that Garth Brooks was going to be performing on the show that morning. I was so excited when I heard that […]

Has Anyone Told You Yet Today That You Are Amazing!

Has anyone told you yet today just how absolutely, positively, incredibly, amazing you are?  If not then let me be the first one!  You are amazing!  Absolutely, positively, incredibly, amazing! Doesn’t it feel good to know that someone else thinks you’re amazing? It’s an awesome feeling, right? “In life, you will realize there is a […]

The Brick Walls Are There For A Reason and other great words of advice

“The brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”  ~ Randy Pausch If you don’t know who Randy Pausch is, let me tell you a little about him. Randy was a professor […]

The Best Part of Life is When Your Family Becomes Your Best Friend

There is very little in life that we value more than a true friend.  And if you are truly lucky in life, you get to have the privilege of having that true friend also be a member of your own family. This afternoon some things happened that made for a really tough day emotionally. Toward […]

Sometimes you just gotta cross your fingers and pray

This afternoon my daughter called me from college to tell me she was coming home to spend the weekend with us.  I was super excited until she said “Yeah, and Dad is taking us repelling tonight”.  WHAT?!  Repelling??  That thing where you dangle from the edge of a cliff with nothing but a clip attaching […]

Worry…Never Mind It

“Worry refers the thoughts, images and emotions of a negative nature in which mental attempts are made to avoid anticipated potential threats.” – Wikipedia Worrying is all about the fear of “what might happen” and it is about as useless of a thing as exists!  Seriously, worrying does absolutely NOTHING to make any situation better, ever!  It […]

Words that inspire us

We have all read something that touches us or inspires us at just the right time in our lives.  Poems have a unique way of having that impact on us.  I was spending time with my daughter last weekend and we were talking about quotes and poems and stories that have really impacted us.  She […]

“Love your Parents. We are so busy growing up, we often forget they are also growing old.”

Life the past few months has been a reminder that I am growing older, especially facing an empty nest.  However, in all my focus to deal with seeing my own children grow older I have honestly lost sight of the fact that my own parents are also growing old… My parents stopped by the other […]

Four Things You Cannot Recover

I once heard a story called the Parable of the Cookie.  It’s a simple story with a surprising twist that teaches an incredibly valuable lesson. See for yourself: The Parable of the Cookie A young woman was waiting to catch a flight in the boarding area of the airport. Given that her wait was going […]