We were just talking about what people think of you.  Should you care what they think?  Seems it should depend on who is doing the thinking. A friend recently told me that he likes his wife’s hair because she still wears it fluffy.  That’s not the current trend in hair styles.  But which is more […]

I was thinking of veterans, coming back from the horror they have experienced in combat and trying to reconstruct their lives, and this poem came together . . . There’s a man emerging without the adornment of position, entourage or credentials. How daunting to stand tall, naked of the uniform that defined you for years. […]

The Chinese have a saying – “When someone shares with you something of value, you have an obligation to share it with others.” You could apply that to many things – knowledge, money, gratitude,  even smiles. Imagine considering it an obligation to smile at someone else, every time someone smiles at you. The question is whether […]

An email arrived from a friend.  It was an unusually long one.  I realized immediately that my friend was getting something off her chest. So I printed out the message and curled up in an easy chair to see what was on her mind. Seems she had just lost a close friend – suddenly, unexpectedly. […]

We’ve been traveling our beautiful country in recent months and I am always so amazed at the variant beauty of this great land. The colors of the desert . . . the majesty of the mountains . . . the mysterious draw of the ocean.  It is all there for us to visit and enjoy. […]

When an elderly relative passed on, I was helping sort through her belongings.  Someone gave me a box of stamps to inventory. There was a treasure of stamps worth 15 cents and 23 cents and 10 cents . . . a nickel . . . even 1 cent.  There were dozens of different designs and […]

During a time when the economy is stagnant and unemployment high, charity is not at the forefront of many people’s priorities. But some organizations have fund raisers that work for them consistently. One of them, in the Shenandoah Valley, is the Alliance for Shelter. For some 20 years, they have sponsored the annual Empty Bowl […]

A friend just bought a new house overlooking the Atlantic.  I am so happy for her.  It’s exactly what she wanted; a dream come true. If I applaud her success and wish her well, and really mean it, then her success adds to my own happiness.  Isn’t it great, how that works?  Hers is a […]

Is it a sign of our times that one of the television networks has a series based on hoarding – the compulsive retention of things that clutter the house even to the point of causing safety concerns? It is amazing to see hoarding – in reality or on the TV screen. Piles of junk and […]

What is the secret of a happy life? Do you think YOU deserve a happy life? What would a happy life look like? How would you know if you are living it? To begin with, you would have peace and contentment. I believe that happy people trust that they are exactly where they were meant […]