Circle of Family and Friends - You and Your Personal Community Archives | Page 9 of 11

Circle of Family and Friends - You and Your Personal Community

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August 10, 2010

Time with friends is a gift that needs to be “opened”. . .

I just returned from a week end in New York City with three very special women I used to work with. Although we had seen each other for dinner many times over the years, we had never made time to travel and spend those long very necessary hours just talking and laughing, about the old times and the experiences that our fresh to us now. There have been job changes and serious health conditions; family deaths and children leaving home and then returning with grandchildren. Among the four of us, much has changed but our love for one another has been strengthene[...]

Circle of Family and Friends - You and Your Personal Community

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July 26, 2010

Time has a way of slipping through my fingers. . .

It's so good to get back to the blog. I have been letting other aspects of life get in the way and I have missed connecting with you. It's an activity that keeps me grounded and I need the grounding, I assure you. I have multiple balls in the air on most days. The really great news in my life right now is the release of my newest book: Let Go Now: Embracing Detachment. I am really excited with it. It was published by Conari and is available on amazon and can be ordered in all the bookstores too. You can always "see inside" when you go to amazon, you kno[...]

Circle of Family and Friends - You and Your Personal Community

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July 16, 2010

Mother's Day has come and gone. . .

My mother passed away in 1998 but not a single day goes by that I don't think fondly of her. I was particularly reminded of her at church yesterday. Our minister honored those mothers present and those mothers no longer with us. It's a miracle that I think so fondly of my mother, actually, because we were not great friends in my early adulthood. We were more or less estranged after I left my home town with a husband they didn't really like. And then in my early recovery I stayed away by choice, even though that husband was no longer a part of my life.[...]

Circle of Family and Friends - You and Your Personal Community

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July 16, 2010

Appreciating the little joys. . .

I mentioned in the last blog the joy of reconnecting with Ellen, a friend I had seen very little of since our graduation from high school in Indiana nearly 55 years ago. As I write that number, I am absolutely amazed at how quickly time passes, never to be repeated. Moment by moment our lives pass us by and then an event occurs that triggers a "look back," and we're shocked. The reality of who we have become startles us. The mini-reunion we had in Chicago last week end provided that "look back" and I remain in a state of shock. We felt young yet, or so we[...]

Circle of Family and Friends - You and Your Personal Community

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June 29, 2010

Connecting with old friends. What a joy. . .

I just returned from a week end in Chicago with fourteen dear friends from high school. There are so many sweet memories running through my mind that I don't know which one to savor first and longest. Starting with my roommate is no doubt a good beginning. Ellen is her name and we hadn't been particularly close in high school but we were in the same group. We called ourselves "the Superlatives." We were certain then, that we were, and deserved to be, the envy of all the other girls in the school. Needless to say we made a few enemies along the way. B[...]

Circle of Family and Friends - You and Your Personal Community

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June 14, 2010

Availability to the needs of others blesses us too. . .

Some of my dearest friends are facing tough situations right now. Being present to listen, or to hold them in prayer, or simply to serve as a witness while they make the journey that is quite specifically theirs to make is why God has "arranged" our meeting in the first place. I can still recall how I used to think an idea such as this one was simply too far-fetched to even consider as a possibility. And now it guides my thinking every day. Being open and willing the allow new ideas to inform us is part of the necessary journey we are on, I think. Nearly[...]

Circle of Family and Friends - You and Your Personal Community

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April 27, 2010

Within our relationships we discover who we really are. . .

. . . and it's not always a pretty picture, is it? I have said on many occasions, in many books and at many workshops, that the relationships we have attracted are perfect for the growth we are destined to have in this life. Perhaps that seems farfetched to you. It did to me when I first heard it, but I decided to believe it for lack of any other reasonable explanation for the myriad relationships I endured in the many avenues of my life. I can see now, (hindsight is so revealing) that every single relationship offered me slices of the education I have nee[...]

Circle of Family and Friends - You and Your Personal Community

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March 22, 2010

Detaching with love seems like an oxymoron to some. . .

When I first heard the suggestion to detach from another person, I interpreted it to mean to sever all ties, all communication. Considering it was a relationship partner I was supposed to detach from, I found the suggestion out of the question. What I had failed to understand at that time and frankly, for many months to come, was that detachment didn't mean to literally turn my back on some one. But rather to shield my emotions from the behavior of others. To let others do whatever they did without my own emotions jumping on their roller-coaster. It wasn[...]

Circle of Family and Friends - You and Your Personal Community

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March 4, 2010

Friends for life. . .

I participate in two telephone conference calls every morning, both of them related to my spiritual journey. And in both calls, there are participants who have been part of my recovery journey for all 35 years. That's amazing to me. It's not that I don't still have loving friends from high school and college who I see or talk to on occasion, but these particular "phone buddies" know me in the most intimate of ways. As I know them. And we are committed to loving and cherishing each other's heart while walking, side by side through the brambles of life. [...]

Circle of Family and Friends - You and Your Personal Community

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February 9, 2010

The count down has begun. . .

I go into the hospital for hip replacement surgery February 11th. My gait gives it away to onlookers. I have been hobbling for some time now. It began with a simple pain that worsened into a constant ache. It's reminiscent of my condition about a decade ago. It was my left hip then. The only time it didn't hurt was when I rode my Harley. No Harley these days and the ache is nonstop. I had thought I could postpone this surgery until December. I have workshops already committed to and didn't want any interruptions. But my body called and fortunate[...]

Circle of Family and Friends – You and Your Personal Community