The Impact of Stress Recently, I felt overwhelmed by a task I was about to undertake. I could feel the signs of stress in my body: shallow breathing, increased heart rate, tightness in my belly and more. Since I was home at the time, I was able to tap into some built in resources I …
My dad died two and a half weeks ago. Dad had Parkinson’s for twenty plus years and finally succumbed to this wretched disease via a choking incident that left him with aspirated pneumonia. I could talk at length about the week that dad lay dying in the hospital and all the feelings that evoked in …
These past four weeks, I have not cried. Haven’t shed a single tear. Not when presented with missed opportunities, lost experiences (and financial reimbursements), and the monotonous daily grind. Not when discovering that the worst was yet to come. Not when reading heart-breaking accounts and watching soul-ripping moments. Not even when I could not see …
This time of the year, with winter’s melt and spring’s thaw, one has to watch where one steps. The ground is soft, mushy and squalid. Although tempting to wear that bright, new pair of sneakers you ordered off the clearance rack on The Shoe Company website (that cute and airy, light-blue pair of Adidas that …
“Everyone has inside them a piece of good news. The good news is you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is.” – Anne Frank Can you imagine writing this piece of literary goodness, this lovely gem of hopeful kindness, while …
When I was nine years old, the bottom fell out of our family’s world with one, horrific phone call. The call that changed everything—it came on a December day, just before Christmas. I remember very little about the date—the common, everyday moments leading up to the call. But I will forever have imprinted in my …
Fighting the dark. Filling the empty spaces. Finding light. First, fighting the dark. I felt a cloud of darkness pushing in around me. Felt it for days. Heavy, ominous: it started with the light-hearted feeling of having done something helpful and hopeful, but left me feeling pinched for air, as if being suddenly choked by …
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are …
I look out the double windows this evening at sundown, while wiping down the kitchen counters from a late supper. Noticing Husband out by the road, talking to an unrecognizable couple and their dog, I am drawn to the over-sized glass on our entryway door. Pausing for a moment, I take stock. Who is this? …
Had not driven very far this evening in the Dodge, me being the sole occupant of the vehicle (so Sirius Satellite Channel 113 was my friend and faithful time-passer)…when CNN alerted me to the fact that a 100-year-old gentleman and his beloved, Sara, at 98, had been burned to death in California’s wildfires. Oh my …
Sometimes in the scheme of life, it is hard to remember that our lives are filled with days and our days are filled with moments. Small moments, at that. Sometimes it is the smallest of moments that we overlook in our quest to conquer the larger ones. We forget what it was like to eat …
My Own Precious Four, The air felt chill and brisk as I headed to the local dairy bar with ‘two in tow,’ for one last treat before school officially begins on Tuesday. One had an English Toffee Milkshake and the other tried her luck with the Nutty Chocolate Dip. We watched the server hold the …
