We’re down to the final days of the official “holiday season.” I hope yours has been full of joy, love, and laughter…lot’s of laughter. This week’s Friday favorites is a sampling of the Hawkes Family holiday shenanigans. Dogzilla decimated the Christmas village, leaving one lone snowman survivor to tell the tale. Destroying and plundering is…
If you are reading this, you survived the madness that is Christmas. I hope you enjoyed it. I typically take the week between Christmas and New Year’s to look back over the year—the experiences, the accomplishments, the lessons learned, and the things I hope to improve in the coming year. For me, this is usually…
Ready or not, winter has arrived (for those of us in North America, at least). That means it’s time to wrap up the Fall Bucket List and commit to a new Winter Bucket List. FALL WRAP-UP When I last reported, I had just three open items on my list. If I give myself a little…
We sincerely love beings and desire that they be well and that they be free from suffering, but we also accept that happiness and suffering are impermanent experiences that arise and fall outside of our control. This doesn’t mean that we don’t act on our love, or that acting is pointless. We act with kindness;…
I hope you are enjoying some holiday cheer and taking time to savor the special moments. I’m practicing what I preach and reminding myself to stop, breathe, and be fully present in the moment. So when I went to the Little America breakfast buffet with my coworkers, I didn’t hesitate to sample all the breakfast…
I love Christmas music. From the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas night, that’s pretty much all I listen to. There are songs that make me smile, some that make me feel nostalgic and tender, and a few that make me go, “Huh? What they’d just say?” I recently read Vikki Claflin’s Laugh Lines post about…
Winter is in the air, if not officially on the calendar. This week’s Friday Favorites centers on season firsts. First valley snow. Of course by the time I took this picture from my office window, the valley snow was melted, but you can still see it on the mountains. This is my favorite type of…
It might sound a little selfish, but this holiday season I’m all about the present. Okay, not the present that comes in a pretty package—though I’m not opposed to that kind either—what I’m talking about is mindfulness, being fully present in the present. Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without…
I’m convinced that the deceptively simple-looking coffee bean has magical powers. How else could someone born and raised in a predominantly Mormon state (where coffee drinking is taboo) fall so hopelessly, madly in love? Because of my strong affection for the magic bean, I was a little afraid to ask the question: Is coffee good…
This year’s Thanksgiving was a quiet celebration–just me and Larry–at the luxurious Grand America Hotel. We checked in the night before and were treated to this stunning sunset outside our window. Thanksgiving morning started with a light breakfast, beautifully served in our room. Then we played Yahtzee while we watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade…
