My mom has dementia. I called her on Saturday night after writing this podcast and asked her if she remembered what happened this week in our government. She told me that she didn't remember. When I reminded her that a new president had taken o...

You've probably heard commentators speak to the untruth in the old childhood adage, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me." I wonder how that saying ever came to be. It was probably meant to give courage to a child ...

The Japanese art, Kintsugi, is the practice of putting broken pieces of pottery back together to create something not only beautiful because gold is used to outline the cracks, but the piece is stronger than before and radiently embracing the f...

In a text from which I taught from once, there was a wonderful line which read, "No one rises to low expectations." This doesn't mean we strive to be perfectionists about all we do or become, but I think it gives us a meaningful challenge to gi...

If you asked me, "What does fun look like in my world?" I would probably say, (in no specific order), 1) entertaining in our home, 2) playing rescue with my 4 y.o. grandson, 3) attending a party 4) laughing until I cry at something someone says...

I love the story of Josef Szajna, a designer and famous director of theatre in Poland during World War II. He was imprisoned in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He survived. But while in the concentration camps, he was confi...

Have you ever given away to some one a thing that was of great value to you? Has anyone given you something that was of great value to them? Giving generously and spontaneously is easy for some and hard for others. But when it is done, the rewa...

I love the quote attributed to Saint Basil (A.D. 330-379) when he said, "[Those] who sow courtesy reap friendship, and [those] who plant kindness gather love." It's so true, basically simple and yet so often we struggle. Today the ...

Tis the Season! The holiday seasons during this time of year have become some of the most wondrous and yet intense of times. Expectations are  key...nostalgia fuels expectations, traditions fuel expectations, relationships fuel expectation...

Has anyone said to you or have you said, "You have my word?" We take the power of words for granted, don't we? They can bring people together, tear relationships apart, make people laugh, start wars, teach the fundamentals of life, bring entert...

We have a painting in our home by Canadian Artist Ron Christiansen called, Sunset. It depicts four members of the Ojibwe tribe sitting in a circle in a grassy field at sunset. It's rich in color and line. What I like about it is that y...

When I have counseled people who have had struggles with communicating with someone who is angry with them, I often suggest that when they are at an impasse and neither is listening to the other, that they ask the other person, "What do you nee...

During this election season, we have all had to mentally reframe what it would be like if one or the other presidential candidate was elected. It's been a tense time. But as I often do, I lean into a powerful quote by Holocaust survivor, Viktor...

These are intense times for our country. I often turn to the wisdom of people who have lived and led through times like these with love and grace. One of those people is Desmond Tutu, who led South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, ...

Our daughter, Maria, and I have ongoing descriptions of our differences in certain areas. When it comes to experiences, Maria reminds me that she holds no expectations so that she is never disappointed and only pleasantly surprised. In life, sh...

There is a Yiddish verb for complaining, kvetch. Its literal meaning is, to squeeze or to crush. When I think of the definition in reference to a person who is chronically complaining, or kvetching, it really fits, because a c...

How do you deal with things that you cannot understand? Things that are a mystery. It can be fairly frustrating in this day and age when we can get answers at the tips of our fingers...via the internet. However, we are also faced with the conun...

I have a book entitled, Wisdom from The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Whohlleben. In the page on "Patience," he writes: "Acorns and beechnuts fall at the feet of large 'mother trees.' Dr. Suzanne Simard, who helped ...

I love telling the story about a mouse sitting with a dove in a fir tree during a blizzard. The mouse asks the dove what the weight of a snowflake is, to which the dove replies, "Nothing." Then the mouse tells the dove a story about a time when...

For many years I taught piano based on the Suzuki Method, developed by Shinichi Suzuki. Its basis is repetition with little steps at a time. The process allows the learner to build one skill at a time by repeating and repeating the step until i...

A long time ago, I found a book in my Dad's library by Elbert Hubbard called, White Hyacinths (1907). In the front flap of the book was this verse, "If I had but two loaves of bread, I would sell one of them, and buy White Hyacint...

Starting in my late 30s, I seemed to collect a variety of groups that I spent time with. I had a coffee group, The Java Sisters, which included teachers who met at a bookstore for coffee after school. Then there was the Planning Committee, who ...

To introduce today's podcast, I searched the word, "sounds," on the internet. I found a 12 minute YouTube recording of all sorts of sounds. Quite fascinating. I remembered a sound I forgot to include in my podcast, the sound of a baby nestled o...

Making mistakes feels pretty bad sometimes. One often wonders what good can come from them. I remember a big mistake I made many years ago. I was in a musical ensemble and another member urged me to share their opinion that the ensemble really ...

People have often asked why I can always be so happy. I tell them that I live by two philosophies of life. One is that every day I look forward to something. It can be as simple as my morning cup of coffee. The second is that when I'm 108 years...