Reflections
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The Beauty Of Being A Grandparent
A moment that I will never forget is when my three-year-old grandson, Jackson, and I were having lunch at a Mexican restaurant. The server asked me, “What would the baby like to eat?” I told her his food order, and Jackson spoke up. He looked her in the eyes and informed her, “I’m not a baby. I’m a GRANDSON!” Many ask or wonder… “What is this word GRAND all about?” As I look in the Mean Mirror of Age and see the creeping of crow’s feet and the sagging of once firm skin, I realize that being a grandmother is about regrets, second chances, and perfect patience. Regrets? …
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Letting Your Soul Show
Recently I received an email from a conscientious woman whom I know to be devoted to warming the world in her own special ways. She was venting frustration over this year’s onslaught of holiday greeting cards that felt, well, obligatory to her. To put it in her words “…it concerns me a bit that people are so busy, and/or don’t take the time to write a little personal note.” This made me smile with empathy. We are trained to live our lives a very specific way. I mean that word–trained. I speak to the homes we are raised in, the social circles that support us, the communities and societies that extend out from each…
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Snowflakes and Christmas Carols (Why We Need Christmas This Year).
Under normal circumstances, this is an interesting time of year. The idyllic mixes with reality and creates for each of us an individual holiday picture. Over the course of the past twelve months, we have lived through triumphs and hardships, trials and tribulations, all personal and all meaningful. These events set the tone for each of our respective Christmas seasons. And we, as humans, emotionally attach ourselves to material possessions to set the perfect stage for Santa. The perfect tree; the perfect gift; the perfect dinner party. Get the carols on. Send the cards out. Go through the motions, the hustle and bustle and feel good. Send the…
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Does Raising Children Dead End Your Dreams?
Torn between doing what you love and being a good mom, let me share my experience of how I kept my dreams alive while raising my kids. Before becoming a mom, I thought I’d have to give up my personal desires but, to my surprise and delight, my children were a catalyst for my dreaming new dreams…even better dreams for my career and life goals. You see I liked what I was doing—working on marketing projects for a high tech company—but I didn’t like the structure of a 9 to 5 schedule. I worked hard to make myself a valuable employee who could work independently, make deadlines, and add…
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Living Through Superstorm Sandy
We were lucky. Sandy huffed and puffed but didn’t blow our house in. I wish the same could be said for tens of thousands of people along the north east coast line who were not so fortunate and still face the daunting task of pulling their lives back together. Sandy was scary. No two ways about it. We started to feel the effects on Sunday but the real storm arrived on Monday. The skies darkened. The trees began to sway more and more violently as the hours passed. The tension of what might happen began to grow in our stomachs. The power began to switch on and off, teasing us.…
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Looking Back I Made the Right Choices After All!
When I became a mom, I immediately felt the push-pull between making the right career choices and doing what was best for my kids. On the career side, it was a time when flexible schedules, job sharing, or work from home were concepts, just beginning to creep into the work environment…and that’s if you were lucky enough to be working for a forward-thinking enterprise. No, if you wanted to become upper management material (and I did), you had to arrive before everyone else, and leave when you looked up from your desk and saw the janitor coming down the hallway. Then there was the pull from wanting to be a…
