In the past two weeks, I’ve heard from two women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. One is a friend of ours whom we’ve known for over 20 years. The other is Susie Lindau at: http://wordpress.com/#!/read/blog/id/22014950/ a blogging buddy. Susie’s eloquent post is very moving. She talks about finding
Author: Nelson
A Tale of Two Moms…Happy Mother’s Day!
I read Anka’s post over at http://keepingitrealmom.com/2013/05/09/mothers-day-will-look-like-this/ and it brought back some good memories for me about Mother’s Days past. I’m fortunate enough to have two Moms; my first Mom and my wonderful mother in law who is every bit a Mom to me as my own Mom. My Mom:
“At the end of the day”…AARRGGHHH!
How often have you heard someone, usually a politician in my experience, say “at the end of the day…” whereby they follow it up with some profound statement related to how smart they think they are. For example, “At the end of the day, my course of action will be
Remember When Air Travel Was Fun?
There was a point in our lives when getting there really was half the fun. No long line ups for security; no worries about getting a pat down that your doctor wouldn’t even think of giving you; taking that full bottle of wine or scotch in your carry on because
Let’s Not Confuse Heroes with Idols
On my post front page I used the Mr. Rogers quote that so many are using right now and none more eloquently than my friend Andrea at: http://fromplaygroundstopolitics.com/2013/04/16/love-wins/ to remind us that “Love Wins”. I’m concerned that there is a tendency these days to use “hero” as a word that
I saw a man today…
I saw a man today. He was sitting on his walker next to one of the “Stop” signs at a four way stop. This man sat in the pouring rain holding a hand lettered cardboard sign. The sign read “I am a Veteran and any help would be appreciated. God
So, what are you leaving your kids?
Have you ever heard someone ask that question? Or, maybe you’ve said it yourself in a different way. “What are we leaving the kids?” Or perhaps thought about it and not mentioned it to anyone because you didn’t want to go there? I know it’s crass but it does get
The Power of Human Touch
You may have seen an updated story about the 1995 birth of twin girls. One of the girls wasn’t doing well and her sister was put in the incubator with her and hugged her. This hug literally saved a life. http://www.planetdeb.net/spirit/rescue.htm CNN recently did a followup on the girls who
The Innocence of a Child and the Ignorance of a Father…
I’m normally a fairly calm guy but I read a story on CNN.COM today that got my blood boiling. You can read the full story here http://ow.ly/hMkB8 The short version is a nurse in Michigan is “suing a hospital, claiming it agreed to a man’s request that no African-Americans care
The Journey – A Short Story
They’d planned this trip for a long time but they knew this was one trip he would take alone. In their fifty plus years of marriage, it wasn’t unusual for them to travel separately. While they loved each others company, they also relished the time alone. No concern about what
The Joy of the Written Word
Over the past few days I’ve received several new notifications from the Blogs I Follow. If you check the link, you will find that I follow a pretty interesting group of people. Several of them are published writers and there are others like myself that may be classed as “aspiring
Things We Don’t Learn – No Matter How Old We Get…
Don’t you think, as we get older, we really should retain more of the lessons that we learned earlier in life? For example: I should know better than to eat about a half pound of chocolate macaroons but I still did it. The sugar let down is brutal and so
Today is a Special Day!
Today is our beloved sister-in-law’s 70 something birthday. I understand you never ask a lady her age or give it away so that’s as far as I’m going. Donna is the elder stateswoman of my sisters-in-law. I’ve known her since I was eleven years old so that is now approaching
Happily married for 37 years…however, we’ve been married 42!
For all my friends and family who are reading this, yes she knows I’ve written this and her first comment was that she thought I was being generous on the 37! Nice! Anyway, yes, today is our anniversary and yes, we’ve been married 42 years. I quite honestly have no
10 Things to Do Before the World Ends!
I know, I know, people have been talking about this for a long time but what can I say, I procrastinate. I guess I better get ready for the end of the world. This is really a dumb statement when you think about it. If the world truly does end,
“Tuesday is Bath Night!”
That is a phrase that I never want to hear or have to experience. It is however, something that many of our seniors and physically challenged people in care facilities face every day. What brought this to mind was a recent story coming out of Alberta as well as my
Do You Celebrate Christmas?
I had this question posed to me after I sent a tweet to fellow blogger Renee A. Schuls-Jacobson. I asked her if it was timely to wish her a Happy Hanukkah. Needless to say she is Jewish, also a proud Mom, wife, and a great blogger. I have her blog
I think you may consider this a rant!
For years I’ve read and seen stories about how seniors and the visually impaired have mixed up their medications and suffered serious consequences. I didn’t understand this until recently. One of the things that our pharmacy system does is use generic drugs whenever possible to keep the costs down. This is an excellent idea
Celebrating 45 Years of Sobriety!
I have two brothers that I’m very proud of and if I had sisters, I’m sure that I’d be proud of them too. However, today I want to acknowledge my oldest brother. Today he is celebrating 45 years, yes 45 years, of sobriety and being involved with Alcoholics Anonymous. His
What’s a Guy to Do??
This is “Movember” when Canadian men grow beards and mustaches to raise awareness of prostate cancer and urge all men to get tested with the dreaded DRE (Digital Rectal Exam) and/or the PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test. First, let’s be clear. Only those men that are truly capable of growing
Count Your Blessings…
I’m a big fan of the movie White Christmas starring Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kay and Vera Ellen. Bing sings a song call “Count Your Blessings”. In the interest of full disclosure, this isn’t something that I do well or often but I think I’m getting better at it.