“My son’s experiences with addiction have provided me with a gift that has changed my life!” Life is full of surprises. Sometimes we are delighted by the unanticipated gift; other times we are knocked off our feet by the unexpected news. Either way, a surprise could be an opportunity for you to experience, celebrate, or enjoy something that you didn’t expect. I was thinking about life’s surprises when I was listening to...

“To give thanks is not merely the act of gratitude; it is also the gift of sharing the bounty, as well.” Someone got me on this thought the other day. With the celebration of Thanksgiving just around the corner, it seemed as good a time to share this with you. A beggar was sitting by the side of the road when a successful businessman walked by. The beggar caught the man’s attention and he reached into his pocket and...

“You are never alone. There is always someone in your world looking to share their gifts and looking to discover those that you have to offer.” By nature, we are social creatures. Some of us are more social than others. Regardless of the level of our social proclivities, we are all naturally inclined to surround ourselves with family, friends, others that we simply feel safe and comfortable with. Because we have a tendency to...

“The character of our being — who we are — enables us to offer our gifts to others in a manner that supports, strengthens, and inspires them to be great in their own right.” In the midst of the furor of the recent debt debacle and the extended election season, we have experienced a near overload of quotes and sound bytes. One thing that strikes me most about these quotes is the tendency to point to someone else and...

“For years I have been mourning and not for my dead, it is for this boy for whatever corner in my heart died when his childhood slid out of my arms.” ~ William Gibson When I immersed myself in therapy years ago, I learned the process of discovery, realization, mourning, and moving on. In evaluating the different relationships and experiences in my life, I learned how to accept the reality of certain situations, mourn their...

“If you had no tomorrow – what would you do today?” With all the chatter the past few weeks about the prediction of the end of the world, I started thinking about what would happen if I knew there were no tomorrow. Would there be something particular that I would do today? Beside telling my family how much I care for them and finding a way to spend time with them, there isn’t much else I would do. It certainly reinforced...