Reaching the Home Stretch

May 27,2025 It is the final week of the school year, and we just had traditional Memorial Day weekend festivities. There was a cookout with family and friends on Monday, a lovely visit with Andrew’s girlfriend Anna for the weekend, and I managed to get in day hike to a new place with Nick. TheContinue reading “Reaching the Home Stretch”

Don’t Give Up 5 Minutes Before the Miracle

April 27, 2025 Writing posts for Mindful Musings has not been in the forefront of my mind lately. I continue to journal daily, and I keep up with my personal practices of yoga, meditation and exercise, but my urge to share my writing has been non-existent. Chalk it up to grief or working full-time orContinue reading “Don’t Give Up 5 Minutes Before the Miracle”

Rediscovering Joy

April 6, 2025 Grief is a bugger. It robs you of energy, fills you with uncomfortable and inconvenient emotions at highly inopportune moments and steals your ability to feel happy. Anyone who knew me before my eldest son died in 2023 would have described me as an optimist. I could always see the positive inContinue reading “Rediscovering Joy”

Isolation vs. Solitude

January 6, 2025 This weekend I attended a meeting in which the chairperson brought the topic of isolation vs. solitude. She opened with some research that she had done, shared her own thoughts and then threw the query out to the group to discuss. People in the group had a lot to share and IContinue reading “Isolation vs. Solitude”

Where are my feet?

December 30, 2024 Where are my feet? One of my favorite mindfulness techniques is to ask myself this simple question. My husband has heard this so many times from me in the past 15 years, that he quotes it back to me periodically. We both have dealt with an enormous amount of stress and griefContinue reading “Where are my feet?”

The Value of Retreats

November 10, 2024 This weekend I spent four days and three nights in Sandbridge, Virginia in a grand beach front house where the main agenda was writing in community. The retreat was a lovely balance of group writing sessions, constructive feedback from our instructor, shared meals prepared by an amazing chef and time to writeContinue reading “The Value of Retreats”

The Importance of Community

September 2, 2024 Finding connection with other people is extremely important to me. For over 30 years I have been the member of a 12-step support group for families of alcoholics, and I am sure that it is one of the primary reasons I have been able to continue to function and work since theContinue reading “The Importance of Community”