Category Archives: appreciation

Relationship Goals

Same day, different observation. The two pictured above walked from the sand toward the shore. He in his little bathing suit. She in her bikini. I would say they were in their 70’s. They stopped several yards from the waves … Continue reading

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Rampage of Appreciation

There is a little park in the neighborhood where our son goes to school. The school is about 30 minutes away from home. I drive all over the place teaching, and often there is a window, sometimes 20 minutes, sometimes … Continue reading

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Before the Body

This meditation has been kicking around in my mind lately. I wrote about it back in 2008 on my old blog, and I repost it here, with love. _____ I want to tell you about a meditation I sometimes do. … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, meditation, spirituality | 5 Comments

Ilonka loves.

Spoiler alert re: Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things. Skip the second paragraph. There is also profanity in this post. Be advised.  Moving is no joke. Even when you land somewhere as beautiful as Florida, it is monumental. It … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, Uncategorized | 18 Comments

Speeding Ticket

Driving in the residential neighborhood I live in, my eyes focus on the intersection coming up at the end of the street. Suddenly, there is a cop standing on the side of the road, with his hand up, telling me … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, spirituality, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Patience vs. Presence

On my morning commute, I was listening to a talk given by Eckhart Tolle. In it, he spoke of the concepts of patience and presence. He said if you are practicing patience, you are not being present. You are white … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, spirituality, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

The Secret to a Long Life

My grandmother used to say she’d earned every wrinkle. Coming across this video I am reminded of her. Watching it feels like a meditation, and a celebration of every wrinkle, every age spot, every memory stored in the body, every … Continue reading

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Learn to Love the Questions

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to learn to love the questions themselves.” —Ranier Maria Rilke

Posted in appreciation, Love., Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens

I always find it. Always, always. No matter where we live there are places, where nature is honored and preserved. Today I “took the day off” and went to Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens. It was lovely. About 10 steps onto the … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, spirituality, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

What irritating thing are you putting up with?

Every day, when I unload the dishwasher, the tops of these cups are full of water. And the water tends to spill out onto the other dry dishes. And it is irritating. Not a biggie when you think about the … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Swimming at Sunset

Not every night, but often enough, after dinner, we head to the beach. Some days the waves are big, and Seth is happy. He lives for riding the big ones. Some days the waves are gentle and Riley is happy. … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, Parenting, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Figure Eight

Despite my tongue in cheek piece in The Imperfect Parent a few years back, I’d never cursed in front of my children for the first ten years of parenting, and even now it is a rare occurence. With Riley’s low … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, Asperger's, spirituality, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

You’re doing just fine…

Borderline panic has been my baseline as of late. I barely know where I am. I am lost all the time, literally. I have not had to be in rush hour traffic on a major interstate in over a dozen … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, spirituality, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Florida

We are in Florida. Putting our house on the market, keeping it spotless for months, selling it, and moving has kicked our butts. I feel like I’ve aged ten years in the last six months. I am feeling very off … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Sorting and Sifting and Tossing and Boxing

The past couple of months have been some of the most stressful we’ve ever experienced. We are now in the final stretch, and soon we will be in our new home (renting), in a new state. We sold the house … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, Uncategorized | 12 Comments

4100 Pages

We just finished the Harry Potter series. We started five years ago and have tackled one every summer, and some during the winters in between. I have read each of those 4100 pages out loud to my kids. The first … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, Cleveland, Parenting, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

# 1 tip for photographing rental units, get out of the shot.

Nice garage, but I don’t want to rent the place if that guy is going to be hanging around. We are going to be renting soon, and I am looking at apartments and rental homes through a realtor and also … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

They’re My Home

We are losing our entire life savings in this move. Not that we had true “life savings.” Our life savings was our equity in our home, and there is no longer any equity. The market has dropped so profoundly since … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, Love., Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Witness

Last night was the 8th grade graduation at Riley’s school. Riley is in 7th grade, but she really wanted to go. It was her birthday yesterday…13! And she wanted nothing more than to spend her evening seeing her 8th grade … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, Love., special needs, special needs parenting, Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Angelo Zuccolo

If you read Daughter of the Drunk at the Bar, you know there was a teacher who changed my life. He was the theater director at the community college I started out at. One of the reasons I decided to … Continue reading

Posted in appreciation, Love. | 9 Comments