Category: Living well
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Continuity
Someone once asked me what the hardest thing was that I had ever done. I answered, without hesitation, that it was giving the eulogy after my brother died suddenly, unexpectedly and far too young. I was blessed to have a sibling who was my best friend, my confidante, my cheerleader and my support. As children…
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Between the Cookies
Certain foods feel to me like punctuation in my life, those moments where there is a brief pause, something that makes us take notice. I’m not talking about my childhood nightly family dinners, which followed a pattern but the other times, the weekends or family events when my mother would pull out her trusty stand…
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Leading with Gratitude
There’s a question that has been rattling around in my brain for the last few days. Maybe you want to try it as well. Here goes: what if you woke up tomorrow and all that you had is that for which you are grateful today? On the surface, it sounds like a simple question but…
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Where is Stillness?
Label it however you choose, but I have come to accept that I am a person who is never fully at rest, never fully at peace. My entire childhood was spent with my mother asking me to please be still, to sit down, to stop flitting around. My father used to say “Take a breath”…
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Capturing Moments
Life, as we know, is made up of a succession of moments, each of them unique and non-repeatable. It is human nature for us to forget that, to treat each experience as if it is going to last forever or to ignore the reality that a moment is here and then gone. We remember that,…
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A State of Grace
There are moments when I see reflections of my parents in me as there are moments when I see reflections of their father and me in my own children. It’s interesting that the characteristics I see in myself, and identify as coming from one of my parents, are usually the ones I would label as…
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One Speed
Since childhood, in truth I suspect since birth, I have been one of those people who only has one speed. Acceleration happens fast and deceleration doesn’t happen. It never has. I am happiest in motion, mentally and physically, and find it hard—if not impossible—to settle down in any respect. My mother’s most oft-repeated expression to…
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Feeling Humbled
This has been an eventful week for me. As a result of some nerve issues in my back, and the unintended, but unavoidable, consequences of back surgery some years ago, it was necessary for me to have back surgery this week. I am grateful to have a team of wonderful and responsive medical professionals, to…
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Achieving Grace
Everything in life is a choice. That’s a pretty definitive statement, isn’t it? And you might contend that things, often, seem to just happen. An illness, an accident, an unexpected turn of events in your personal or professional life. That’s true. Things do happen that we don’t plan or expect or want to have happen.…
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Do No Harm
I would imagine that we all know the phrase “First, do no harm.” It’s often attributed to the Hippocratic oath that medical students take. The phrase is actually not part of that oath but it stands on its own, still offering a watchword worth holding. The concept seems a simple one and, I would suspect,…
With a Full Heart 