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Airstream Adventures

Closing out our summer camping adventure, we were to be in Charleston SC eating at nationally acclaimed restaurants and playing tourist. Instead, we spent 6 nights in Rocky Mount, NC following an unfortunate experience. Driving 65 mph on I-95 we had a wheel of our Airstream camper trailer fly off, sailing into the median. 

Thank goodness there were no injuries. We hobbled to a nearby hotel, parked the truck/trailer, and checked in. The next day was spent looking for a tow truck and researching how this could have happened. For two days we were promised a tow but alas none ever appeared. Finally, Steve contacted a local big rig repair company and an angel appeared. Dale Womble of Mangum’s repair came to our rescue trying to help, but by 5pm on Friday, no parts were available anywhere.

Steve then called a random Drexel parts dealer in Denver (2 hours earlier than us, how clever!) and they shipped everything we needed to Dale’s...

Kindness

This week the 56-year-old brother of a dear friend of mine died, of Covid. We like to think it’s over, but it’s not. Perhaps the worst is behind us…a million people died of Covid in the US and millions more are grieving due to this incredibly tenacious virus. But people are still getting sick, and death continues to loom in the shadows.

This is where kindness comes in. And compassion. And the commitment to listening. When those things occur, change happens. Here are 3 small examples of how our words can impact others for the rest of their lives.

A nurse in my course Awaken To Your Purpose relayed a story of a hospitalized patient she was working with to help him arrange for discharge. He was discouraged and his symptoms were preventing him from going home when he hoped. She said, “I just kindly and told him I had high hopes for him to be going home the next day and that he should too, and I just encouraged him to stay...

The Tilt of Your Axis

It’s December 21, Winter Solstice in the northern hemisphere, and today is the darkest day of the year. 

Today is the day when the sun takes a few hours off and, peeks out only for a short stretch. In the Arctic Circle on this day the sun has called in sick and stays in bed all day.

The Solstice is all about the tilt, the tilt of our Earth’s axis in relationship to our elegant dance around the sun.  It’s about a change in the orientation and angles between the Earth and the Sun. The slightest of shifts determines if we receive or deflect the Light.

The slightest shift in our tilt determines if we receive…or deflect…the Light. It’s true with how we see all things, isn’t it? Tilt our head one way and one perspective comes into view, tilt it in another way and a new point of view emerges.

As we in the US navigate during the major holiday season from Thanksgiving to New...

Thankful. Grateful. Appreciate.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  When I think about the 3 words around this season, they are thankful, grateful, and appreciate.

It is the time of giving and receiving the most valuable gift we have…Love. Love comes in all sorts of packages, a phone call to a friend, a donation to the food bank, a card to a family member, a small meal or an enormous feast, a glance of understanding by your beloved, or the curling up of the kitties in your lap. These are the gifts of the heart of Thanks Giving.

Gathering with friends and loved ones around a meal can be an act of Grace. The laughter and stories and food and joy all create a rarified atmosphere. A place where time can become irrelevant, and memories become alive again.

Like this memory of my niece Tori 15 years ago when we made Martha Stewart worthy pumpkin pies!

 Or this post-turkey photo of 4 generations of our family with sweet squirmy nieces and nephews that we...

Be the Light

12/12/20

December is a month of beauty and celebration and reflection and exhaustion. People in the working world are rushing to finish year-end projects, budgets, and goals. Analyzing what went right and what went wrong during the past 12 months while focusing on what to expect in the coming year. Between the major holidays and cultural expectations, we pack an unrealistic amount of “To Do’s” into this 1 month. December has a lot of pressure on its shoulders!

This year December has a frightening new challenge. In addition to all the usual December pressures and delights, now we must consider what to do about gifting and gathering during the most alarming time in modern US history: Covid19.

This year why don’t we take advantage of the stay at home recommendations, put on the holiday music, don our best sweat pants and holiday sweaters, light a candle or 8, make cookies and eat them ourselves, write love notes to everyone we know and give...

The Power of Thank You

Summer of 2020 is behind us, loneliness still abounds, and I continue to miss our friends and family in spite of technology that is meant to keep us connected. Today I was reading a story of volunteers who write letters to people living in nursing homes isolated from their loved ones and to doctors and nurses on the front lines. Their simple acts of kindness made me feel encouraged and hopeful.

That story took me back to the home of my friend and mentor Laura Carmichael. Her desk was always filled with note cards, rolls of stamps and a sharp set of sheers, a City Directory (this is an old-timey book of names and addresses of everyone who lived in the city), a telephone book (another old-timey artifact that had phone numbers and addresses), and her coveted address book. For more than 60 years Mrs. Carmichael would clip pictures of the brides from the Sunday paper (remember those?!) and mail the copy with a congratulatory note to the bride and her...

Forgiveness in the time of Covid 19. 

These days I’m constantly looking for relief from the worry and anxiety of the chaos in our world. Relief can come from taking a walk in the woods, reading an inspirational book, watching a sunset, calling a friend, and eating comfort food.

These past few months I have felt fear, uncertainty, confusion and angst. And I have been compelled to find relief with home remedies. Remedies like regular doses of Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food (aka chocolate+ ice cream), or the ingestion of medicinal Tate’s chocolate chip cookies or my go-to soul food, pepperoni pizza paired with a tasty chardonnay.

None of this may seem unnatural to you, but for me, these self-treatments feel like a comforting embrace. You see, before Covid19 I had not eaten any sugar, grains, or dairy for nearly 5 years and felt terrific. Then enter the global pandemic and the uncertainties of the future led me to relief-eating. I reasoned if you are going to get...