Insights for uncommon joy in the everyday
Don’t you just delight in the sweet, sweet taste of summer family vacations, where joy and laughter are generously slathered over every moment of the day and sprinkled with children playing happily together, their delightful voices adding perfectly delectable notes to each and every deeply satisfying day? What’s that? Are you saying that […]
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“I see the lake, I see the lake!” Every year, my six siblings and I would crowd and elbow one another as we jockeyed for the coveted spot in the Volkswagon bus so we would be the first to see Shadow Lake as we drove the final stretch of narrow, winding road to my grandparent’s summer […]
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You carefully prepare the soil and plant two identical gardens. In the first, the little seedlings are nurtured, fertilized, mulched and weeded with an abundance of love, patience and attention. The other plot gets nothing from you except for an occasional condemnation: “Why can’t you grow up big and strong like your sibling?” Oh, fine. […]
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Have you ever thought that your idea of happiness would be to spend a week’s vacation preparing for and holding a yard sale? That you would be just beside yourself with delight at digging through boxes that hold years of foolish purchases, projects you were going to do, and clothes you bought and never wore? […]
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It’s a conundrum, really. How can something little actually be bigger than it initially appears? Well, consider this: Have you ever helped a friend with something simple, perhaps picking up something at the grocery store, and they gushed with appreciation? Have you ever given a small gift that the recipient treasured more than it’s actual […]
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Gratitude can be a funny thing. We let it roll glibly off our tongues when life is good: I am so very grateful for this brand new car, my beautiful home, the college graduation/wedding celebration/baby shower with the abundance of amazing gifts. Those are the easy ones because we are happy at our good […]
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Are you old enough to remember that stores did not always have free public bathrooms? You had to pay to use them, and they didn’t look anywhere near as sleek as this. You have not lived until you and your six siblings who are all under 10 years old are doing the traditional We’ve waited […]
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June 6, 1944, D-Day, marked the day our military landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, and Operation Overlord began. Thousands of our service persons died in that initial assault and over the course of World War II as we battled against evil. That willingness to serve to the death is what Memorial Day is […]
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“Hello! How are you?” you ask your friend, and again, she insists on brightly answering “Ok!” while you can see the worn out and tired of worry in her eyes. You know she is not being honest, but in lieu putting her in a headlock until she cries Uncle!, you just don’t know what else […]
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Polite society demands that when we run into a friend, we ask how they are doing. Polite society then requires our friend to respond with a short and sweet, and often untrue, answer. What good does that do any of us? If we are not willing to open up and admit our infallibility to say […]
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