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A new year and a new list of things to do. What is it about the turn of the calendar that sparks such a flurry of new beginnings? Goals and promises often broken before the months end as we fall back to our old habits.
But with these goals, these dreams we reach out for, I have discovered change and it doesn't have to begin on the 1st of a month, year or of the week, I quit smoking January 7, 2003....

You were unsure which pain is worse –
The shock of what happened or the ache for what never will.
- Remembering Ryan 
Since losing Ryan twenty-seven years ago, I can still recall, in great detail, the many fragments of my journey through grief. I was understandably a mess. So much so that my father asked our family doctor to prescribe me something mild, a pill to take the edge off from the...

The sounds of life
It takes strength to make your way through grief, to grab hold of life and let it pull you forward ~Patti Davis
The residue of disbelief still bubbles up when I drift to the last moments shared with my mother. Her death, another reminder of life’s brevity, provokes the lessons of grief. Memories become the guidepost of my life, and a balm to my sorrow. Creating space for contemplation...

Peace begins with a smile ~ Mother Teresa 
Inspiring Women Series: Mother Teresa
Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu,  August 26, 1910 - September 5, 1997, honored in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, was an  Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary. She was born in Skopje, part of the Ottoman Empire. After living in Skopje for eighteen years, she moved to Ireland and...

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. 
Inspiring women series: Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart, was born July 24, 1897 – disappeared July 2, 1937, and declared dead January 5, 1939. She was an American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first female aviator  to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about...

“The greatest problem in the world today is intolerance. Everyone is so intolerant of each other.” – Princess Diana 
Inspiring women series: Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana Frances Spencer was born on July 1, 1961. She was the fourth of five children. The Spencer family had been closely allied with the British royal family for several generations, Diana's grandmothers had served as ladies...

"If you want something said ask a man. If you want something done as a woman." ~ Margaret Thatcher 
Inspiring Women Series: Margaret Thatcher 
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, born October 13, 1925 was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom  from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British...

Memories of our lives, of our works, and our deeds will continue in others ~ Rosa Parks 
Inspiring Women Series: Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. Her parents, Leona, a teacher and James McCauley, a carpenter.She was small as a child and suffered poor health with chronic tonsillitis. When her parents separated, she moved with her...

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." ~Marie Curie 
Inspiring Women Series: Marie Curie
Marie Curie, known as Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, part of the Russian Empire, on November 7, 1867. She was the 5th and youngest child of well-known teachers Bronisława and Władysław Skłodowski.
The...

Fight for the things you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you - Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Inspiring Women series - Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York City on March 15, 1933. Her older sister, Marylin, died at age six from meningitis when Ruth was 14 months old. When Ruth started school, her mother Celia noticed that there were several...