DAILY GRATITUDE BITTERSWEET

 

We are grateful as we begin a new adventure…

for feeling bittersweet….

It’s a feeling we won’t forget…

because it means in all our old adventures

we have loved the different experiences we have had

and all the people we have met.

HELLO AND GOODBYE

 

May we be blessed to live a life

where we are kind and loving and sweet

to everyone we meet.

where we are accepting, compassionate forgiving…

Knowing the time will fly

From the moment we say Hello…

To the moment we say goodbye.

UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN

 

 Yesterday was my last day working in the bookstore…

a bittersweet moment for me….

as Deborah and I prepare to move from Florida to NC.

As I walked away for the last time…I turned around to look

and think about all the friends and memories 

I’ve made among those books.

I thought about all the moments I know I’ll never forget…

all the amazing people I have worked with…

all the wonderful strangers I have met.

The wide diversity of people and families who walked through our front doors…

looking for books about politics, humor, fiction…music, sports and dinosaurs.

How from the moment I walked in…until yesterday…the years have seemed to fly

but there is one thing I learned while in the store:

I don’t have to say goodbye.

It was in a book about the Cherokee Indians…that one day caught my eye

where I learned how the Cherokee language has no word for goodbye.

There are no goodbyes when someone leaves…but there is a moment when…

they say Donadagohvi to each other…

which means…until we meet again.

Because there is great comfort believing…friends will again be seen

no matter how long the interlude…no matter how much time between.

I love that concept…no farewell statement when one decides to fly

no adios, no swan song…no need to say goodbye. 

As Deborah and I turn the page on our next chapter…

I’ve reached that moment when

I say to the bookstore and all the friends I’ve made…until we meet again.

So Donadagohvi everyone…until we meet once more…

How wonderfully appropriate I learned this word…

while working in the store.

DAILY GRATITUDE THANKFULNESS

 

I am grateful every night…

in bed…as this promise to myself I keep

I think of one thing I am thankful for

and I’m amazed at how peacefully I sleep.

BLESSINGS

 

May we be blessed on Thanksgiving…and every day

as the weeks and years and decades mount

to not only count all our blessing…

but to make all our blessings count.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2025

 

As our divided nation gives thanks today

(like we’ve done hundreds of times before)

it seems we’re even divided on what we should be thankful for…

And it saddens me to think how…to so much horrific behavior we’ve become numb…

and to see just how much of a divided not United…States we have become.

To help remind us as a nation…the kind of nation we were meant to be

let me turn your attention to part of a poem Emma Lazarus’s wrote in 1883

Her poem, The New Colossus, was so powerful it was etched on a plaque in 1903…

and placed inside the pedestal of our Statue of Liberty.

‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses

yearning to be free, 

the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.’

Now, more than ever, is the time to think about Emma’s words

and exactly what they meant…

and remind ourselves Emma Lazarus the author of the poem

was a woman…

she was Jewish

and an immigrant.

So I send a Happy Thanksgiving out to everyone…

every religion, every color…every LGBTQ+

every immigrant…and everyone who’s rich or poor….

and I hope and pray that next year…

we’ll all have so much more to be thankful for.

DAILY GRATITUDE FAMILY AND FRIENDS

 

DAILY GRATITUDE

I am grateful for every member of my family…every day

for all the friends I’ve made along the way.

for understanding just how far my family extends…

and how my life is so much easier 

when I can share my joy and sorrow…

with my family and friends.

EXTENDED FAMILY

 May we be blessed to see 

when we include our family and friends…

just how far and wide our family extends…

For as we grow and mature

It becomes easier and easier to see:

Anyone who we have loved 

and who has loved us…unconditionally

is, 

was and 

will always be…

a member of your family.

 

THE FAMILY PORTRAIT

 

Their first family portrait was soon after little Violet was born…

It was taken in their hospital bed.

There was a mix of emotions on their faces 

as they prepare for their life ahead.

It is a beautiful portrait because within the frame you see

the joy that comes with creating a brand new family.

I love how those of us within the family

who couldn’t be there to share…

how, through the magic of the camera,

in that moment…we were there.

But the closer I look at the three of them

I’m not sure how this happens…but I swear….

I begin to see, surrounding them,

people who are not there.

I see my mom and dad, Deborah’s mom and dad

and lots of people I don’t know…

ancestors from both sides of the family

who left us long ago.

There they are…crowded into their hospital room

filling every space…

and every single one of them has a smile on their face.

And as more and more people crowd into that portrait

It’s easy for me to see…

they are there to welcome Violet into our ever growing family.

I love how this happens anytime I see a portrait of our family.

It makes me pause a moment to give thanks…

at how my eyes look at the picture…and my mind fills in the blanks.

I can’t wait for the day Deborah and I 

look at this picture with Violet…tell her about the moment it was shot…

and remind her how we’ll always be with her…

even…when we’re not.

DAILY GRATITUDE CHILDREN

 

I am grateful in my life 

How my children taught me how to be a good parent…

How their children taught me how to be a grand parent…

and now I can’t wait

to see how little Violet will teach me how to be great.

PATIENCE

 

May we be blessed to remember as parents…

beginning from their our baby’s very first day

how we need to be patient with each other

because we are all learning every day.

AN ARMY OF MOMS

 

When a child senses danger…or they’re feeling a little unwell…

Why is MOM! so very often the first word that they yell?

When they’ve achieved a goal…when they fall in love

when at something the excel…

Why is MOM! so very often the first word that they yell?

Could it be when they need someone to listen…someone who cares

when they’re happy…or when they’re feeling blue 

they call out Mom instinctively…knowing that’s what mommies do.

Knowing they will drop everything and come running

the moment they hear their name…

In fact, mom’s all over the world……come running just the same.

Ready to help…at any moment…any day…and any hour

you might say when it comes to moms…this is their superpower.

It’s one of the reasons we are told…from the time that we are two…

If you sense danger or are in trouble anywhere…look for a mom

There are an army of them out there…and they’ll know exactly what to do.

We were recently blessed with a birth in our family

which means we have a great-granddaughter

and are already under her spell…

but it also means the world was blessed with a new mom as well.

Another mom in an army of moms…whose superpowers are the same…

who come running when we need them…the moment they hear their name.

And in an uncertain world…where with all kinds of problem we are beset…

now more than ever we need all the Moms that we can get.

So MOMS…we’re calling out for help…hoping for your wisdom and your grace…

MOMS…if you can hear us we really need you…to make this world a better place.

In a world that’s filled with hatred, prejudice…wars…bullets, guns and bombs.

who better to turn to in this time of need…than an army filled with MOMS.