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Grief is not a law-abiding citizen. It is a renegade, an ever-changing beast. Grief is a labyrinth. Expecting it to follow a straightforward path is like expecting water to run uphill. It just isn’t going to happen. You experience it once, twice even four or five times and you are no more prepared to experience it again.  It’s always new. That’s the awful magic of grief  – all magic aside, of course.  This is because no grief is the same. Not ever. Each time we grieve it is different and unique because our losses are different and unique. And the person we are when this loss occurs is different and unique. We are as ever changing as grief. There ...

My husband and I met in driver’s training class when we were 15. We’ve been best friends ever since. How corny is that? Friendship doesn’t always lead to romance, however, and for us that leap didn’t come until years after we’d declared our best-friendship. During the time...

Light is a tiny fragment of the electromagnetic spectrum we can observe with our eyes. We are surrounded by it every waking moment, and yet, most of us don’t give it a second thought. Overlooked as it may be, light is one of the most impactful aspects of our environment with wide-ranging effects on our...

I have much to be thankful for. I am a strong advocate and overall supporter of thankfulness. When the kids were younger we even had a gratitude wall in our kitchen where we listed the many things we had to be grateful for – things we call blessings. I believe thankfulness should be a part of each day....

The end came quickly, as it often does for the best of beings. Our cat was old. We knew that. He’d been with us for 19 years and his bright light was growing dimmer. His candle was flickering. We all saw it and knew his truly majestic life was coming to an inevitable end. But it’s never easy &nda...

It’s beginning to feel a lot like winter. Is there a better time to snuggle up under a cozy blanket with a cup of hot chocolate (with whip cream of course) and settle into a good book? We love the idea of hygge and have a great book display to go with it. If you’re not familiar, hygge is a Danish...

My husband thinks our cat is dying. Or is close to death or is succumbing to old age. I don’t disagree. The cat in question is 19 years old. He’s lived a good life, an extremely good and long life.  He still goes outside every day, albeit for shorter jaunts than in his younger years. He s...

The effects of increased carbon dioxide in our air are cause for growing concern. No matter your stance or beliefs on the topic, irrefutable evidence reveals there is more CO2 in the air now than at any other point in modern history.  In 2016, there was roughly a 33 percent increase of CO2 in the air...

When my kids were very young, each of them had a favorite movie that we viewed over and over (and over). As I watched replay-after-replay, I noted the shows had a few things in common. They were animated productions made by Disney and embedded in their storylines were life lessons that served as a benefit no...

The electronic cigarette or vape industry has recently come under fire with the United States Food and Drug Administration, and many states are passing sweeping bans and other sanctions. A study of 11,000 people conducted by the National Cancer Institute’s Health Information survey found that positive ...