A Story with a Beautiful Message

This morning I was reading my email and I came across a story that I’ve read several times and each time it settles deep into my heart. It has a beautiful message. Here is an excerpt from the book, The Dash by Linda Ellis and Mac Anderson from Simpletruths.com… In the faint light of the attic, an old man, tall and stooped, bent his great frame and made his way to a stack of boxes that sat near one of the little half-windows. Brushing aside a wisp of cobwebs, he tilted the top box toward... 

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Food for Thought–SELF-LOVE

There is a saying…’you teach what you need to learn’. This is what I’m doing by writing and sharing what I’m learning about self-love. These past few years have been a time of massive personal growth and uncovering the ‘real’ Holly. It isn’t an easy process but definitely worth the sweat and tears that come along with it. Living with a husband with dementia has taught me about unconditional love, patience, surrendering to what is, and living in the present moment. In addition,... 

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Insightful Living from the Wild Side

If you are a subscriber to my newsletter–Tips for Insightful Living–you may have already read my  ’bear story’ but it is worth repeating in a blog. I gained so much from this incident that I wanted to share it with more readers. When someone is upset or having an angry moment, my sister says, “there’s a pony in there somewhere” (ie. A golden lesson). This past week I phoned her because I needed to ‘vent’ about a persistent bear hanging around our bird feeders. She... 

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Turning Down the Effort Knob

I am taking a year-long intuitive coaching course and one of my biggest lessons has been turning down the Effort knob. I had no idea that I have a tendency to make life more difficult than it really is. For example…before I travel to courses I used to fret about the list of things I had to do for Dave, the house, preparing meals, our pets etc. Last month I was speaking with a fellow colleague and telling her about my list and she simply said…”it  doesn’t have to be hard”.... 

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The Dance

There is a beautiful song written by Garth Brooks titled the Dance. The first time I read part of the lyrics was in an obituary in 1988. A young friend of my son was in a tragic horse accident and her father wrote…”how could I have known you’d ever say goodbye. And now I’m glad I didn’t know the way it all would end the way it all would go. Our lives are better left to chance. I could have missed the pain But I’d of had to miss the dance Holding you”. Every time I experience pain or... 

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Don’t Make Assumptions

It is 5:30 in the morning and our ginger cat with white boots is knocking at the front door. Actually he is scratching at the side glass panels to let me know he has another present for me. Usually I see the minimal remains of his capture (a mouse) but this morning I guess he didn’t feel like eating fur and left most of it for me to pick up. Living in the wild has its ups, downs, good and bad. I love living in the country but it isn’t always rosy. Just before letting our kitty kat in the front... 

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Sprained Toe & the 5 Stages of Grieving

Last Wednesday I sprained the base of my 3rd toe on my left foot on one of the boulders around our pond. I was cleaning the pond filter and in a bit of hurry to finish my to-do list before I left for a trip to Boulder, Colorado. I was so concerned with ticking off my list that I didn’t pay much attention to the pain in my foot—except that I had a scrape on the inside of my toe and some nail polish had come off. Little did I know that this (stupid little) toe would cause me significant ‘grief’... 

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Loneliness and Caregiving

I wrote this blog on caregiving.com and I wanted to share my message on my website as well… Dr. Cacioppo wrote a book called Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection. He says that humans need a deep connection with the people around us and, without it, there is a higher risk for chronic disease and early death. There was a study in 2007 at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center that showed that lonely people were twice as likely to get Alzheimer’s disease late in life.... 

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Loving What You Do Today

Have you ever thought about what you would be doing if you had 6 months to live? I love this question because it makes me stop and think about my life and ask…am I doing what I love to do today? I was reading an article the other day about a study with people who have terminal cancer and are given 6 months to live. Do you know why a significant number of them go into remission? Because for the first time in their life they ‘let go’ of pleasing other people. They aren’t concerned what... 

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If You Have a Lemon, Make a Lemonade

Sometimes when I read a personal growth book I like to open it at a random page to see my ‘message of the day’. Last night I started reading Dale Carnegie’s book—‘How to Stop Worrying and Start Living’ and the chapter was titled…’if you have a lemon, make a lemonade’. It is a story about a woman, Thelma, who moves with her husband to a military training center in the middle of the Mojave Desert, California. She lives in a one-room shack in the unbearable heat–125 degrees in... 

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