Events & news
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Validation
“Just like children, our emotions heal when they are heard and validated.” ~Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey I love it when I read a paragraph in a book that jumps off the page and affirms something I’ve always believed — as if its author is speaking directly to me. Likewise, I have a friend who’s a caring, first-rate conversationalist. How does she do it? For starters, she pays attention and listens with an open heart. She has a rare gift for making others feel heard, uplifted, and validated in her presence. She doesn’t simply wait for you to stop talking so that she…
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Old friends
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst conducted a now-famous study on friendship. In particular, he investigated how the context in which we meet people shapes our social network. One of his conclusions: We naturally lose about half of our friends every seven years. Given our ever-changing circumstances — we move, change jobs, get married — it’s logistically impossible to remain close to every friend we’ve ever had. My dear friend Debbie and I touched on this topic yesterday. Deb and I met when we were both pregnant nearly 39 years ago, and our enduring friendship is wrapped in layers of shared memories and experiences. We’re also lucky enough to have kept a few…
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Funny Friday: On being disappointed
“He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life and found a dead beetle at the bottom.” ~P.G. Wodehouse I’m sure you’ve heard the old expression, “He wears his heart on his sleeve,” in reference to a person whose emotions are easy to read. Along those lines, today’s quip from P.G. Wodehouse has a wry twist. Have you ever met anyone who looks chronically disappointed?
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Funny Friday: “Knowledge”
“Some people drink from the fountain of knowledge, while others just gargle.” ~Robert Anthony Fiction and fact can get tangled and stretched, or completely twisted, if we’re not careful. How does this happen? It happens when we don’t play close attention; when we don’t take the time to research the story. It happens when we insist on believing instead what we want to believe or what some crazy neighbor told us. ~CL
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Dear subscribers …
Mailchimp, the service that sends my email posts, has changed its free program limits. To curb new monthly costs — while keeping the subscriptions free to you — I’ll share fewer posts each week. Starting next month, I will stop offering email subscriptions to NEW readers, making “Life Lines” more like a private blog with a limited audience. Again, I will not charge you for a “Life Lines” subscription. If you currently subscribe, or if you start a new subscription by the end of this month, you’ll still get free “Life Lines” email updates when they’re posted. If you have friends who’d enjoy getting “Life Lines” posts, the time to subscribe is now, before the “Subscribe via…
