Do you ever feel like in life you strive to take two steps forward and something comes along to move you four steps back? We really want to succeed but sometimes it seems like we are hitting our heads against a brick wall at every turn. In those moments we are forced to make a decision. Do we move ahead and work to persevere, or do we simply give up and move to plan B and C and maybe even D? When I started the Bring Smiles to Seniors program, I did… Read More

You have seen me write a lot about friendship and there is a reason for that. I truly believe it is a solid base of good friendships that help make our life full. When you find people that nourish your soul, you know that those people have come into your life for a reason and it certainly did not happen by chance. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of going to brunch with my group of ladies that I play Mah Jongg with. We were celebrating two of the groups birthday. As I… Read More

Have you ever had that moment when your body and soul are trying to tell you something but you just can’t quite figure out what it is?  There is something you are supposed to know, yet you are just too busy trying to get on with your day and life that you don’t take the time to stop and listen? Finally, when you do figure out what it was, you wish you had listened because it would have been better to know sooner. This morning, I am going to share a personal… Read More

Yesterday, on my Facebook news feed this image came up that I posted a year ago. It said” The most dangerous risk of all – the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.” Going through the Lymphoma diagnosis with my dad made this reminder even more meaningful than it was a year ago. How many times during the course of our lives do we pass on doing what we actually want in the moment, in hopes… Read More

Today I was out doing errands and I happened to get behind a car that was going really slow. I was boxed in and I couldn’t get around them because of the traffic on both sides of me. The longer I was stuck the more frustrated that I became and I could feel my blood pressure rising. All of the sudden I began to think. Why in the world did it matter? Where was I going that it was so important that I get there any faster than what traffic was permitting?… Read More

Tonight I went to visit my friend that is in rehab after having knee surgery. It so happens that it turned out to be one of the senior communities that we regularly deliver cards to that is also a rehab center. As I sat around the table with her mom and a mutual friend of ours I got to thinking. There is something that clicks inside us when we have a friend or family member in need. It is almost as is we have ESP or a second sense to anticipate what… Read More

As we go through life, there are many instances where we set out to do something and seem to hit a brick wall. Or, we think we can do something and all people tell is us is that it isn’t possible or we can’t. We hear no so often that we start to doubt our own abilities and begin to believe that they may actually be right. Growing up this was a problem that I faced early on. I didn’t have the greatest self esteem and it wasn’t hard for me to… Read More

I was watching a movie the other night and it had a quote about hope in it. The quote was “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies.” This got me to thinking about how much hope plays a part in our every day lives. Just about everything we do has a degree of hope associated with it. We hope we are successful. We hope for a good life. We hope for health. When someone is sick we hope they are better. When we… Read More

Since the beginning of the Bring Smile to Seniors program, I have had the pleasure of interacting with some of the most talented people I have ever encountered. The handmade cards from card artists across the world have been unique, creative and beautiful. I have come to learn that the people behind the cards are equally as beautiful. When I started this program we bought cards from the stores anytime we could find them on sale. Then we made the decision to start a Facebook page and start advertising to try and… Read More

As we go throughout our day we are presented with many opportunities to thank people for their kindness and gestures. Shopping, work, play and almost everywhere we go something happens that requires us to thank someone for something that they did. It’s human nature, at least for most of us and it is usually expected, yet well received. However, do we ever take time in the day to thank ourselves? Throughout our normal routines we maintain an enormous level of responsibility. We work hard to meet the needs of our families, jobs,… Read More