Yesterday was the first day of Lent, a time when Christians often make an attempt to “give something up” for forty days in order to induce some reflection on the sacrifice of Christ.  As Christians, we are not the only faith that gives things up from time to time in order to focus ourselves on sacrifice and to return to what is truly important. Following...

Last month in a regular update I receive from an executive coach our company used to work with I received a bit of a wake up call.  Roger, the coach, was telling us all that he had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor.  It was a jolt out of the blue just as he was contemplating retirement and what the “next” phase of life would be for him. ...

This is one of my favorite quotes from one of my all time favorite movies “It’s a wonderful life”. This past weekend I celebrated my 50th birthday. I celebrated with friends and family in a way that really drove home for me how truly fortunate I am to have the life that I do. Friends traveled from Florida, North Carolina, Washington DC, and Texas to...

“Without friends, no one would choose to live even though he had all other goods.” – Aristotle 2-10 You’ve Got A Friend This week our topic in Channeling Aristotle was friendship. Aristotle was emphatic about the importance of friendship in leading a good life. Aristotle says that the essence of a virtuous friendship is selflessness. I had...

Last week my husband and I had the pleasure of spending the day with some retired friends who spend about 50% of their time living in a small cabin on the South Platte River in the foothills of Douglas County, Colorado. It was an exquisite crisp fall day. We met up with them mid-morning and took a tour of their tiny 2 bedroom cabin. I think it is probably...

After our lazy morning on the porch and a late breakfast, we loaded two canoes and two kayaks on the truck. We headed out down the dusty, winding gravel road upstream for a little outing on the river. We parked at a State Park – $2 – and drove down to the lot by the river. There was a building near the river called the Shot Tower. This is an old Civil War...

We arrived in Raleigh late yesterday afternoon and drove a couple of hours North to the Blue Ridge Mountains along the New River to our friends cabin. In an instant I was taken back to my Southern youth. The sounds, sights and smells of the South are unmistakeable. Sitting on the porch in the evening the moisture starts to build as the sun drops down below the...

I mentioned a few posts ago that I have been getting ready for a garage sale which has had me going through lots of old things to decide whether to keep, toss or sell.  Since I am an avid reader and lover of books it means I have a LOT of books about which to make decisions.   This is always tough for me.  I often take stacks of books to the local library that I...

I had the good fortune of getting a last minute invitation to the  Zak Brown Band at Red Rocks on Monday night.  Typically I make all kinds of excuses when things come up spontaneously.  I like to plan things out.  And I am definitely not spontaneous if I don’t know anything about the venue, restaurant, etc.  I didn’t know a thing about the Zak Brown...

This has been a week of digging in to the past in a multitude of ways and cleaning my “mental house” in the process.  First of all, I am having a garage sale in two weeks and have to get through all the boxes that are story my mother’s things, John’s things, my old things, Lindsay’s things, Mary Mac’s things, things, things,...