Merry Christmas!As you gather with family and friends, may you use this time of reflection, joy and celebration to take a quick glimpse back and cast a hopeful eye toward the future. Christmas is a time of much gift giving and once you have all of yours wrapped, why not add a ribbon to the perfect gift - forgiveness. Forgiveness. Hmmm.How much better off we would be if we could forgive others. Maybe it’s the drivers who annoy us, the waiter who ignores us, friends whose Continue Reading
My Own Secret Santa
I finally sat down and wrote out a couple of dozen Christmas cards. Oh I know, that’s not many to some folks, but it’s a couple of dozen more than I said I was going to send this year, because I’ve had a case of the good old holiday blues. So it felt good to think about each person I was writing to while reliving the relationships. Whether your family lights an advent candle or a menorah, the holiday season is one usually filled with great emotion. Preparing special foods, filling the home with Continue Reading
My Life as a Rockette
Somewhere around age 7, my mother enrolled me in a dance class. Ballet. I lived in small town Wisconsin where there wasn’t a selection of dance studios, YMCA’s or parks and rec offerings. But we had June, 50ish as my memory recalls, a retired dancer with a warm engaging smile of bright red lips, who tricked out her basement with mirrors, ballet barres and wood floors. She taught three classes – ballet, jazz, and baton twirling. Baton twirling? In a basement? Oh well, we were seven, and it was Continue Reading
Shopping for the Perfect Gift? Here’s your Guide
Ahhh, Christmas, that special time of year when too many people over stress, over shop, and over spend, all for the sake of giving the perfect gifts. Do we select a gift based on practicality, or is it something a bit more special, maybe something the gift receiver wouldn’t purchase? Do we ask for requests and then feel obligated to only give from that list regardless of the absurdity of the requests? Maybe the question to ask is “why am I giving this gift in the first place, and what kind of Continue Reading