Gratitude and guilt are emotional enemies. So are joy and jealousy. These emotional enemies make playing the game of life difficult to enjoy. They are competitors of one another. These conflicting feelings show up when people who know each other want the same thing, but only one receives it. Take friends applying for the same…
Traveling is great, and I’m blessed to do a good deal of it, but I always look forward to coming home. Dorothy said it best when she clicked her red ruby slippers together and repeated, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.” She was right. The young girl from Kansas was in…
Patience and acceptance are lessons I thought I’d learned. Life doesn’t seem to agree with me. That or I need more practice. Situations involving both virtues keep entering my life. Accepting what life gives me is easy when I get what I want. When something happens that I don’t desire, patience and acceptance are more…
Do you see the dog howling? Or the snail head? Does something else catch your attention? Cloud formations are fascinating. Depending on a person’s imagination, the fluffy white puffs against a blue backdrop can vastly differ from person to person. Our imaginations make connections and give life to shapes in the clouds. What is obvious…
“Hazards Exist” signs warn of obstacles on ski runs, but life is no different with its unforeseeable challenges. The “Hazards Exist” signs make me laugh to be honest. As though posting a sign at the top of a mountain will prevent skiers from attempting to ski down the mountain. Of course they’re hidden obstacles! Challenges…
Of all your holiday memories what do you most recall? If I had to guess it isn’t the “perfect” ones. It’s the holiday mishaps that stick out. The once in a lifetime situations like the Thanksgiving turkey that slipped out of Grampy’s hands. A turkey is a turkey, but the one on the floor that…
Viewing life as a glass half full or a glass half empty seems to be a limiting approach in my opinion. The options are left to nothing more than a positive or negative outlook when really there are other perspectives to consider. Instead of assigning negative connotation to a glass half empty, I choose to…
As Thanksgiving approaches gratitude is on the forefront of my mind. When I think of gratitude I also think of happiness. In my opinion the two go hand-in-hand, so when I heard about my dad’s “Happiness Calendar” I knew I had to share the idea. My dad likes to keep track of things, miles biked,…
It’s my belief that the majority of people are good. Why then do bad things happen to good people? The truth is, life happens to all people. Good things and bad things occur in the lives of good and bad people. Life doesn’t decipher people or situations into categories. There is no separating the deserving…
The EVVY Awards are the like the Emmys but for self-published books. Several months ago I submitted my book Pink Elephants to the Colorado Independent Publishers Association for an EVVY award. I was notified that I was a finalist in the category of Parenting. This is a huge accomplishment, especially for a first time author. I…