Category: relationships
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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,…
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Enough to Go Around
Here are some things I know for sure. We live busy lives with work and family and friends. We have two dogs, one a 15 year old rescue and the other a 5 year old Golden Retriever. My day begins just after 4 in the morning and goes pretty much full tilt until my head…
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Get Over It
I guess there are people who can just “get over it.” Maybe you are one of them. I, for better or for worse, am not. I never have been. And, while I definitely don’t claim that as one of my better traits, I accept it as part of who I am. In some ways, my…
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Echoes and Understanding
Happy birthday Dad. How amazing it is to realize that it’s been 30 years since I’ve actually said those words to you. I have often said, perhaps as I reflect on it now, a bit uncharitably, that my father elevated difficulty to the level of an art form. Born in Poland, faced with the horrors…
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Stealing Your Peace
Unsettling experiences—we all have them. Sometimes things just don’t go our way or, worse yet, surprise us in ways that might leave us saying “didn’t see that one coming.” You know those times, the ones we replay over and over in our heads, the ones that wake us up in the middle of the night,…
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Filling Holes
Here’s what I don’t think—I don’t think that our childhood is the absolute determinant of who we become. I believe that we all have different skills and abilities and opportunities and that we truly can achieve that which we desire. But what I do think is that there are beliefs and behaviors that we hold…
With a Full Heart 