Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
Two years ago, I was barely able to get out of bed. Two years ago, I wondered if life would ever get better, or if I was doomed to a future of isolation and deprivation. Words were the weapon I employed to battle my way out of the kind of depression that accompanies debilitating illness. […]
Read More
Table six in the fourth floor dining room at the long-term care facility is a favourite with the staff. Ninety-eight-year-old Dorothy leads the pack with her no-nonsense attitude. Beside her sits Verna, just eight years her junior, who always has a smile and a kind word for everyone. Carole is the junior member of the […]
Read MoreOriginally posted on One Woman's Quest:
Meditating on the majestic beauty of the trees outside my window, I come to recognize something about myself. I cannot help but think that even though they are symbols of quiet strength, trees are not without their own vulnerabilities. Acts of Nature, or even human folly can bring…
The riddle closes in. I can hear its heavy footsteps, echoing in my ears. The dark brings out that which the day hides. (Excerpt from Beautiful Affliction) Lene Fogelberg knows what it is like to live with an undiagnosed medical condition and to be turned away time and again from doctors. In Beautiful Affliction she […]
Read More
Explosive, sometimes irrational, anger is a steady companion of addiction. Anyone who has lived with or been an addict will recognize the pattern played out in the pages of Mishka Shubaly’s memoir : I Swear I’ll Make It Up To You. Shubaly holds nothing back in the telling of his story, subtitled: A Life On […]
Read MoreOriginally posted on Thriving Under Pressure:
Smile like you’re changing the world. Because you are. 🌸 We often think of changing of the world as some great big, grand gesture. Performed on stage with millions of people watching. When in fact it’s just you and me (and 7 billion others). Smiling, connecting, caring, and loving.…
Let me offer a few thoughts that were first planted in me by a Religious Studies teacher at university: If we were meant only to serve ourselves, we would all be born as islands. Love cannot exist where there is power over, however; love exists for all when we serve one another. While his words […]
Read MoreJust finished listening to “Carly’s Voice” by Arthur Fleischmann with his daughter, Carly. Carly, unlike her twin sister, did not develop normally, and after a barrage of tests and consultations was determined to be developmentally delayed and mentally challenged – autistic, non verbal. Having stumbled across ABA, Carly’s parents hired one-on-one therapists to work with […]
Read MoreEight days in – each day a new adventure. Our two year plan to retirement includes winding down my husband’s business, selling off all our home and furnishings, and hitting the road in the 40′ RV we just purchased. Never having owned an RV before, we thought it would be a good idea to park […]
Read More
Taking a moment to remember all whose lives have been sacrificed that there might peace in the world to remember my father, his brother, my grandfather and the countless men, and women who fought for the right to live in a democratic country; for freedom of speech, and right to religious practice, who dared to dream […]
Read More
One Woman's Quest II 