“Grief And Joy Live Side By Side Now In My Heart”- Meet Ann Hood
Welcome to my interview with Ann Hood. I am thrilled that Ms. Hood accepted my request for this blog interview, especially in light of her busy traveling schedule with the paperback release of her newest book, The Red Thread. Ms. Hood is a noted author of the best-selling novel, The Knitting Circle and the memoir, […]
The Ambivalence of Moving On – Recreating My Life As An Empty-Nester
For the past 8 months people have been asking me, “So how is it being an empty-nester?” And my answer has been, “I don’t know; I can’t answer, yet.” I have not been able to get a handle on this concept. I need time to settle in to this pretty major life transition. I guess you […]
The Time is Now – Be Extraordinary
I want to share an awesome u-tube that I just received in my email. The person who sent it, my old exercise trainer, clearly knows what moves me. I feel compelled to post this here. Time gone, youth gone, time passing. There’s nothing to hold onto but the tide of change. As Gretchin Rubin of […]
The Newborn of Life
The purest, simplest beauty –that of a newborn. I have spent the last few days looking at my new granddaughter; sitting and just watching her. Talk about holding onto the moment, being in the moment; I have been melting into the softness of this little and huge miracle of life. When I’m with her, everything […]
The Fruition of Labor
“Birth is an opportunity to transcend. To rise above what we are accustomed to, reach deeper inside ourselves than we are familiar with, and to see not only what we are truly made of, but the strength we can access in and through Birth.” –Marcie Macari I supported my daughter in her labor as she […]
Pushing Through the Hardship Towards Growth
I stood by the curb and watched Nava work hard at climbing down from our mini-van. Although this certainly wasn’t the first time my mother witnessed ‘this torture’ I was imposing, she expressed her annoyance at me for being “so tough” on her. Her idea was, “give her a hand to make it easier; you […]
Raising a Service Dog
I have been on the other side of service dog work. Whereas my most recent interviewee, Ms. Brill, is assisted by dogs, I was a foster parent to a puppy, raising and training him to become a service dog. My husband and I started off applying for a companion dog for my daughter, Nava. As […]
“Live, Love, Laugh” with Service Dogs
I am pleased to post my third interview with Leigh Brill, writer, speaker and advocate for people with disabilities. I read an excerpt from her new book, A Dog Named Slugger, in Ability Magazine, and was immediately drawn in. Ms. Brill, who has cerebral palsy, has spent more than 10 years “in the company of […]
In Tribute To A Young Friend
Today was the fifth anniversary of the death of an 18 year old girl. Aviva was my daughter’s college roommate overseas. She was memorialized today with a brunch service that included moving and eloquent speeches and acknowledgment of a charity set up in her name to continue her good-natured work of helping those younger students […]
Meaningful Happiness
How do we fill our bucket? The Happiness word – it’s all around us. Tons of happiness books, articles, even an Oprah show on it this week. We as a society seem to think if we have more, get more, buy more, we’ll get to that point where we can say we’re happy. But we […]