Autumn
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Your harvest, your life
“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” ~Oprah Winfrey Late autumn inspires us to take stock of what we’ve planted or accomplished. The season of Thanksgiving — not just the holiday itself — underscores a simple choice we always have: We can celebrate all the good things we’ve reaped and experienced, or dwell on the difficulties we’ve encountered. A positive mindset is the natural outgrowth of appreciation. (Happy people are grateful people.) It’s part of the harvest we reap when we count everything on our gratitude list, large and small. ~CL
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Gratitude
“Of all the practices, I believe that learning to feel and express gratitude may be the most important in achieving and maintaining a happy life.” ~Andrew Weil, M.D. Are you counting your gifts, advantages, and blessings? Numerous studies show that keeping a gratitude journal on a daily basis will improve our life satisfaction within three weeks. You need only list a few items — and they don’t have to be major. Small pleasures add up to a big increase in contentment. Consider the taste of your morning brew, the fall colors on your morning walk, or the lovely handwritten note you received in yesterday’s mail. Record your gratitude list at…
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Nature’s magic show
“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” ~Mary Oliver I rarely carry or use my cell phone when I’m walking a nature trail. So I’m continually baffled by all the people I see (and hear) who are focused on their phones instead of the beauty all around them. Some are gabbing so loudly that their voices drown out the music of the birds. American poet Mary Oliver is known for her sense of wonder and reverence for the natural world. Her reflective poems illuminate the everyday miracles we might overlook when we’re jogging through the woods or our suburban neighborhoods. As Oliver reminds us, there’s magic in nature…
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Season of the witch
“Witches are outsiders, and those among us who have been bullied and ostracized can relate to their plight. Part of our fascination with witches is that they are the only female mythic figures with power. These are women who don’t need to be rescued by a prince or a king, but, instead, can save themselves.” ~Alice Hoffman, from the 25th anniversary edition of Practical Magic Halloween season is here. Several of the homes around my neighborhood are decorated with life-sized witch figures, some flying on their brooms in the trees or circling plastic cauldrons on front lawns. My fascination with the history of “witches” began early. My parents, both of…
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Homecoming
“But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays a while like an old friend you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it, and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since he last saw you.” ~Stephen King, Salem’s Lot Autumn was made for nostalgia. Last weekend, Doug and I hosted a party for several of our closest high school friends. The gathering was a homecoming of sorts,…
