Merry Christmas …

Santa’s come and gone and hopefully, he and the missus, the elves, Rudolph, Donner, Comet, Prancer, Cupid, Dasher, Dancer, Blitzen and Vixen — well-sated from all the milk and cookies — are now safely back home and enjoying a well-deserved rest. As for the rest of us, here’s my Christmas wish:

Peace on earth, good will to men. 

Happy thoughts …

There’s a scene in Eat, Pray, Love when Elizabeth Gilbert is in Bali and her lover tells her she should choose her thoughts every morning the same way she chooses her clothes.

A friend of mine had the movie on in the background, while she attacked the floor in her hallway with her new Black and Decker power scrubber.

It’s not the first time she’s seen the movie (who hasn’t watched it countless times?), but the words really resonated with her this time around. Her timing, in

On a positive note …

Whew! We survived 2017 and that’s all I’ll say about that. We’re being positive, right? So Happy New Year to you, to us, to all those we hold dear.

When I was thinking about what I’d write today, I remembered something my mother used to say (and do) every time I moved into a new house or apartment.

“Fransi,” she’d say, “remember to bring a piece of bread, some salt, some sugar and a new broom with you the first time you go in. And make sure you enter with your right foot first.” It wasn’t enough she’d

As we hurtle toward another new year …

When I was young I was impatient. I couldn’t wait to be 13, then 16, then 18, then 21. I couldn’t wait to become a teenager, to drive, to date, to vote, to work, to live on my own. Time moved so slowly, too slowly. It drove me crazy.

Now that I’m in my dotage it’s the exact opposite. I can’t keep up, can’t keep track. The days turn into weeks and months and years and decades way too quickly. It’s not fair, what’s the rush?

Why can there be no happy medium?

Don’t bother trying to come up with an answer. It’s one of those

She must be talking to herself …

There she stands in all her glory. The Statue of Liberty, the universal symbol of freedom and democracy, welcoming all immigrants arriving from abroad.

A UNESCO world heritage sight, she has been described as a “masterpiece of the human spirit that endures as a highly potent symbol—inspiring contemplation, debate and protest—of ideals such as liberty, peace, human rights, abolition of slavery, democracy and opportunity.”

What must she think of Donald Trump?

Considering all the vile and vicious garbage that flows freely and unchecked from those pouty lips of his, and all his ugly promises of

The happiness effect …

Actually, just looking at this photo and imagining myself in it makes me happy.  So beautiful and serene.  But what inspired this post is a terrific article I read on Facebook last week.

It’s about Matthieu Ricard, a 69-year-old monk who’s being called “the world’s happiest man;” and here’s the link if you want to read it.

He believes that when you think happy thoughts, for even 15 minutes a day, you’ll start getting positive results in just

Somewhere for me, myself and I …

It’s been a while since I’ve checked out the WordPress Daily Posts.  So I decided to see what I’ve been missing.  Lo and behold, I found something really interesting; and inspiring:

“An extra room has magically been added to your home overnight.  The catch:  if you add more than three items to it, it disappears.  How do you use it?”

Now I know why my cats were restless last night.  Their sixth sense must have been kicking in like crazy.  What self-respecting cat wouldn’t be spooked by the sudden appearance of a room that hadn’t been there before, one that was just down the hall from mine, over there, on the left, beside the living room?

And I guess I wasn’t dreaming when I heard a door gently close.  It was ‘real’ enough for me to open my

Happy now?

Do you ever watch Super Soul Sunday? It’s one of Oprah’s and can be found on the OWN Network. On Sunday’s obviously. Here, in Toronto, where I live, it airs at 11 a.m. I have no idea what time it’s on anywhere else.

All I can say is, one of my favourite things to do on Sunday mornings used to be reading The New York Times and meeting friends for brunch. Since I ‘discovered’ this show about a year ago (although it’s been on for about 3 years, I believe), everything waits until after it’s over at noon.

Each week Oprah sits down with another “top thinker, author, visionary or spiritual leader and they talk

Inspiration for a new year …

I’m reading a wonderful book, thanks to my blogging buddy, Claire, at Word by Word.  It’s called The Hidden Lamp and it’s comprised of “stories from twenty-five centuries of awakened women.”  I’ve had it for a couple of weeks, but only really started to read it seriously last night.  And am I glad I did.

No sooner did I start the first chapter, than I was greeted by this poem, by Rabindranath Tagore:

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy.

I awoke and found that life was duty.

I acted and behold, duty was joy.”

Magnificent, yes??  And oh-so-inspiring.  At least I think so.

The author of the particular story, the first in the book, tells of how she came across the poem and what it meant to her.  She said:  “They captured a

Day 327. Life Lesson

Life teaches us many lessons.  A lot of the time it’s our mistakes we learn from, but not always.  Sometimes it’s the things we do right.  And, in the process, if we’re lucky we also find out about ourselves, at the same time.  When we decided to close our agency, it was a very tough decision.  But that was just the beginning.

There were a lot of very difficult conversations that had to be had; and they all fell on me.  First, with the man who ran our parent company.  And then with our staff, with our clients, with our suppliers and alliances and with the industry, in general.  To say it was challenging and intense would be an understatement.

The biggest revelation was what I discovered about myself:  I was much more of a grown up than I thought I was.  I didn’t hide. I didn’t cower.  I accepted responsibility.  I faced it.

I did what had to be done.  I told who had to be told, despite the butterflies in my stomach, the nausea, the