A year or two ago I started a new practice. At the end of every day I mentally list 3 things I am grateful for. I also sometimes list one thing I could have done better that day. I usually do this as I am falling asleep, but sometimes I do it throughout the day […]
Thanksgiving has just passed, and now I am counting the days until Christmas. I love Christmas, because I love giving (and getting) gifts. I love lit trees, delicious treats, and family traditions that have been celebrated and passed down for thirty plus years. And, yet, as I am getting older, I have come to love Thanksgiving […]
For the personal piece on caregiving, I wanted to share some advice from a dear friend. My friend of many years—let’s call her Lily—is caregiver to a young son who is currently struggling with two different types of mental illness.
Do you live with someone struggling with a mental illness? Are you a caregiver for an aging parent or seriously ill spouse? Do you have an active relationship with a close friend battling depression? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you are caring for someone with special needs and are a “caregiver,” […]
“Everyone needs something to look forward to.” This is a quote from a man personally known to me. He said many wise things during his 95 years on the planet, but this is one of my favorites. To me, it echoes the proverb I quoted in the practical blog on this subject—“People die for lack […]
Everyone is waiting on something. A vacation, a new job, a spouse, a baby, a relationship to mend. We are all, in a sense, in a waiting room—life’s waiting room. We are in one room—one place—waiting on the next thing in hopeful anticipation.
I recently heard someone say that “if you are not getting the harvest you want, there is something wrong with the seed you are planting.” We have to “plant” (or spend time investing in) what we want to get. And planting is not always easy. Sure, it is fairly easy to plant when things are […]
Years ago when working with trauma patients, a colleague told me that she never expected her clients to forgive their perpetrators. I knew what she meant. Some of the things we are forced to experience in this life are so tragic there is no foreseeable way a person could forgive. And yet, people still find […]
Forgiveness: 1) to give up resentment of or claim to requital for, 2) to grant relief from payment of, 3) to cease to feel resentment against (Merriam-Webster). I propose that most people have at least one person in their lives they find difficult to forgive. Some people we think we can never forgive, and others […]
The older I become the more I realize there is much I do not know about etiquette. For example, growing up my parents were usually the hosts of big holiday parties. The guests always brought gifts when they came to dinner, but being young I never noticed. Only in my early adult years did I […]
