Yep! If they want your email address, it isn't free. Not that I won't trade it if it is for something cool!

My mom was from Wales, my dad from the United States. Since my parents chose to make their life in the U.S., we saw my dad’s family much more often than my mom’s.

My dad’s mother was Grandma, my mom’s mother was Nana.

Grandma had raised ten children, six boys and four girls. Life at their house was loud and a bit chaotic. No matter what was going on around her, Grandma took it all in stride.

My mom tells of coming over to America to marry my dad at just 18, turning 19 on their wedding day. Two of…

She was my roommate second semester in college. The drama was non-stop. I lost track of her.

A mutual friend moved to the same town she lived in and saw her. When I was in town one weekend, we dropped by to visit.

We stayed an hour or so, the conversation fascinating. It always was with her. She was the star of a bad movie.

1. She got clean. She quit drugs a year and a half ago.
2. Her ex-husband was gay. He was charged with molesting young boys.
3. The guy who cut her grass turned out to be a serial killer. She answered when he called her from prison because she didn’t want to make him mad. And he was nice.
4. She was working as a drug treatment counselor. She had been doing it for three years. (See #1.)

Some things never change.

100 Words

They are beautiful girls but should know they are more.

They are clever, they are funny, they are strong, they are artistic, they are kind, they are athletic, they are loving, they are interesting, they are adventurous, they are intuitive, they are leaders, they are nurturers, they are opinionated, they are tenacious, they are feisty, they are talented, and they are enough.

They paint a vibrant picture, and it’s so wrong to reduce future world changers to simply pretty. Let’s stop and really see them.

And women, show everyone you believe you are much more than how you look, too.

…

“Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things.” — Chaim Potok

There is a house in my town, The Historic Sharpe House, that once was the family home of our first mayor, Colonel Silas Alexander Sharpe. A group of citizens got together years ago and refurbished the house so it won’t go the way of so many historic homes.

The Executive Director of the House, Keith Rhyne, has the gift of entertaining. He can cook, he can design flowers, he can decorate, and he can create an experience. …

Selling my house
When the market is good,
Will allow me to create the life
Best for me now.

But I get overwhelmed,
With the stress of moving,
Too much for my mind to process
And the thought paralyzes me.

She quietly invites herself over
And suggests we do one thing.
A closet, a cupboard, another stack of papers,
One by one we tackle them, but never on the same day.

She senses my point of overload
And allows me to say stop,
But then asks
“So what can I help with on Thursday?:

Thanks, friend.

Thanks to Lucy Dan…

Soon after Mandy got married in 2002, she began to feel as though something just wasn’t right with her body.

A lifetime athlete who then was running over three miles every other day, she paid closer attention to her body than most and knew something was off. Her menstrual cycle had changed, though that wasn’t unusual for an athlete. She was tired, too. But mostly she just didn’t feel like herself.

The first doctor she went to said it was either normal athletic irregularities or possibly because she was sitting down too much in her profession as a graphic designer.

…