Smiling is good. Nothing makes me smile more than a profound connection with someone. You make me dance like a fool Forget how to breathe Shine like gold Buzz like a bee Smile, by Uncle Kracker Valentine’s Day is a great day for celebrating relationships…with “that special someone” for certain…but for smiling at all …
Loving them first
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day…a day celebrating love. Often we think of it as only celebrating romantic love within a couple…I’ve had a number of conversations that have me celebrating the love parents have for their children. This week, in various ways, I have been reminded of an important truth…that the love parents have for their …
To love is to be vulnerable
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love any thing and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure at keeping it intact you must give it to no one’s, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies or luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up …
Rubber Duckie Moments
There’s something about a bright yellow rubber duck that makes me smile. And it’s not only me, either. Rubber duckies are known the world over for creating grins. It may have started for many of us as small children, with getting to know one of our television friends, Ernie. I had a toddler crush on …
The "Critical 6" messages
Six Critical Messages for Children to hear from us: I believe in you I trust you I know you can handle this You are listened to You are cared for You are very important to me Barbara Coloroso sitellite/util/snippets (code=d44f2009e711e15a63d59052a9d75011) Barbara Coloroso is my parenting hero. Her style provides clear respectful boundaries that allow children …
A Thought
For a long time I wondered why I felt like bowing when people showed their appreciation for the work that I’ve been privileged to do. What I’ve come to understand is that we who bow are probably–whether we know it or not–acknowledging the presence of the eternal: we’re bowing to the eternal in our neighbor. …
Love’s a function of connection, not communication
Poor communication doesn’t disconnect souls It’s the disconnected souls who poorly communicate. Ann Voskamp Came across this line today in a blog posting that kinda took my breath away in its simple, painful beauty. A little more of it: He lays his hand on my bare shoulder. Water drips from the tips of strands tousled …
Owning it and Fixing it
I blew it the other day. I was frustrated, tired, angry, and hungry…and when one of the junior members of my tribe made a mistake, I didn’t handle it well. He did something that indicated he was a normal adolescent who forgets that there are other members of the household…he looked after himself. That’s what …
Did a mistake? Am a mistake??
So…who likes to make mistakes…who likes to live with the consquences of their mistakes? Nobody. It’s lousy to make mistakes. But some of us can be really hard on ourselves. I HATE making mistakes. Especially stupid, foolish, expensive ones that were completely unnecessary, and DUMB. (You get that I can be hard on myself with …
Soul Restoration
To the readers from Swaziland, Argentina, Chile and Peru who were on this website yesterday…if you come back today…you may well not understand the internal feelings of winter doldrums I describe today. But if you were among the visitors from Norway, Poland, or Winnipeg, you can probably understand where I’m coming from. It’s been cold …