What happens when unaccompanied minors travel from Granada, Spain to live with you for three weeks during summer? They become family. (Read Unaccompanied Minors: part 1, if you missed it.) I believe that family is a group of people related to each other by blood or connection; those who support and help each other, but …
Hope and redemption for Mad Men
If I were to send a letter to Matthew Weiner – the creator of Mad Men – it would go something like this: Dear Matthew Weiner, Thank you for creating one of the best shows on earth. I will miss anticipating what’s next in the life of Don Draper and watching the cast of characters evolve and express their …
God gave me the bench
God gave me the bench in the park. He said to give my thoughts to it whenever I wanted. He explained that I am not built to carry so much anger, fear, guilt, sadness, resentment and shame. Crafted by the hands of boys hoping to earn a badge of honor, the bench is sturdy. It can bear …
Lessons from women dumped by women
If you’ve ever been dumped, ditched or unfriended by a woman friend, or girlfriend, then you know how devastating that loss feels. Friendships give us meaning and purpose. When we have our best gal pals around, we feel wanted, trusted and good about ourselves. The relationship with our women friends reduce stress and lift us up. …
The inconvenience of life
I want to have a full and joyful life. I want to have a life overflowing with laughter, movement, grace and love – and inconvenience. I chose marriage. I chose motherhood. I chose writing. I chose to share my motherhood journey in front of strangers. I chose to work from home. My choices have brought me tremendous …
7 reasons why I love Granada, Spain
When the plane touched down in Rochester, NY, I immediately felt deflated and melancholy. Days after returning home from our trip to Granada, Spain, I still couldn’t shake the weighted-down feeling. My energy was at an all-time low. I felt that my “old” life had became predictable, burdensome and unsatisfying. Perhaps it was the lack of …
Alhambra Adventure
Our merry band set forth one morning to explore the Alhambra – an ancient web of palaces and fortresses built by the medieval kings of Granada from the 9th through the 14th century. Our tour guide showered us with competent details that unfortunately lacked the spellbinding quality of enchanting tales of love, war and chivalry. …
Traveling with teenage boys
Traveling with five teenage boys to Granada, Spain proved easier than I thought. If you don’t count one pair of broken headphones (a casualty of a mini soccer game in the Philadelphia airport), one iPhone thought to be lost sometime during our four hour layover in Philadelphia, but …