Thrive As You

Last week I was talking with a friend about Christmas.  This friend was a little "Bah Humbug" about it all.  And truthfully, I have been a little more "Scrooge" this year than I usually am and I haven't been able to figure out why.   Until now. So my friend is saying that Christmas is "just for the children."   And I went on to explain that I didn't necessarily agree (shocking) and that Christmas is about family -- the one you're born into and the one you choose along the way.  This just a few short weeks after spending a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with friends I've chosen along the way ~ so the subject was near and dear to my heart.  Friend continues to argue with me that the decorations and all of the surrounding hullabaloo are really just for kids to enjoy.   And guess what -- I think Friend may have been kind of right.  (Dear Friend, if you are reading this, you may want to print and frame this post because I'm quite certain I...

Sometimes I think that the hardest thing in life is letting go. When you are a child you have a favorite toy/doll/blanket and at some point, your parents force you to let it go. When we’re kids we have no idea why, and truthfully our parents can’t even really reason with us why it’s necessary. But the good thing is, that toy/doll/blanket is just tucked away somewhere. We can still peek at it once in awhile, even hold it up to our nose and inhale that deep sweet smell of sweat and tears and grime and love. Sure we have to put it back again, but the security of knowing it’s there is sometimes good enough. So even though we’ve let it go what we’ve REALLY done, is just learn to live without it. This is why death is so difficult. You are forced, usually unexpectedly, to let go of someone that is very dear to you. And there’s no looking back. You just….. let go. And it’s over. I’ve been married for 11 years but once upon a time I dated a boy that I loved with every fiber of my being. We spen...

Raise your hand if you get a million "forward" emails in any given week pertaining to who-knows-what because you automatically hit the "delete" button when you see them? Whoosh. That was a lot of hands going up, I felt it all the way through cyberspace! Well, I'm on that list to be sure ~ and this week I got this email from my father-in-law and it was a letter that Erma Bombeck wrote. The mouse was hovering over "delete," but for some reason, I opened it instead. Who knows why. I read it, a little bit stunned. Given what I wrote in my last post, I was kind of shocked to realize that Erma and I share(d) a brain. Crazy. So I wanted to share with you what the late, great Erma Bombeck had to say had to say about....... sweating. IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER - by Erma Bombeck (written after she found out she was dying from cancer). I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't ther...