Coming home

reminders of love...

Aug 17, 2024

“"We all need people that we can belong to, knowing that being with them is coming home." - Bernard Cook

As summer approaches its end, I was blessed to get in a final summer vacation with my brother Pat, sister-in-law Sandy and my son Michael. We went to Door County and enjoyed taking in the sights of that scenic Wisconsin destination. One of the many highlights of this vacation was attending Packers Training Camp - a first for Michael and something I haven’t done since the 1990’s.

I have written several essays in this newsletter about my family and the importance of being with people you love. I find those connections refreshing, both physically and emotionally.

My summer started off with a vacation where I found myself recuperating from thyroid cancer surgery, enjoying some fresh air and connecting with mother nature.

Again, I can’t emphasize enough how much better I feel when I can spend time outdoors. That has always been the case for me since my childhood, which was spent growing up on a dairy farm. Perhaps it takes me back, without me even realizing it, to those happy days…

Regardless, vacations are necessary to help rejuvenate ourselves…giving us time to make, as my mother would say, “beautiful memories.”

There are many ways you can spend your time with those you care about on vacations.

You can travel, see places you haven’t been to before and get to experience something new, fun and exciting. One of my favorite vacations was going out west with Pat and Sandy and seeing Mount Rushmore in 2018. It was the first time my son and I had traveled out west and it was a vacation filled with many firsts.

There are also vacations where you find yourself returning to familiar places year after year that bring back fond memories. Those are the majority of my vacation experiences and I love them equally. Earlier this summer, I had the chance, on one of those vacations, to reconnect with my brother Joe and sister-in-law Pauline and we had a lovely afternoon visit, filled with laughter and great conversation.

Returning to special spots in Wisconsin and doing family traditions like mini-golf, fishing, exploring parks, visiting museums, going to plays and enjoying the local restaurants are just some of my favorite activities.

No matter what it is you find yourself doing, being able to do it with joy and gratefulness in your heart and loving every moment ...that, I think, is the one of the keys to happiness…

My view when I was fishing this summer with my brother Pat.

As I said earlier this summer, people are the essence of my happiness and spending time with those who love me as much as I love them…there aren’t enough words to explain…how important human connections really are…

So as summer now begins to morph into autumn, I take with me gratitude…for the people in my life who invite me to join them on family vacations, for all of the wonderful places I have seen and experiences I had a chance to have and, of course, for the “beautiful memories” that were made along the way…

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Tranquil Moments…

I asked my niece, Jennifer Malphy, if she could share some of her nature photos with my newsletter audience. Each week I will feature a new photo. Here is this week’s - According to Jennifer’s Facebook page “My favorite flowers in a field below the farm where I grew up and my brother Nate and his family now live.”

This week’s Smile video…

When he was a child, correspondent Steve Hartman missed out on playing Hillbilly Golf when his parents drove through Gatlinburg, Tennessee. He has never forgotten that missed opportunity, but finally, decades later, he had a chance to play on the miniature golf course of his dreams.

#believe #smilevideos #spreadkindnessandlove

And that’s a good thing…

Meet Beacon, the Golden Retriever therapy dog, who helped the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team during the Olympics - one of the many positive stories on the Good News Network website…

…and that’s a good thing…

This week’s TED Talk

Jane Carlson has had a life-long fascination with genealogy and has always been interested in how we are all connected to each other. She has worked to find her own heritage in the world and has interesting insights as to how you can find yours.

What I am reading…

This week I read the book The In-Between by Hadley Vlahos, RN. I read this book in just a few hours. I highly recommend this book!

The Amazon description is as follows: “Talking about death and dying is considered taboo in polite company, and even in the medical field. Our ideas about dying are confusing at best: Will our memories flash before our eyes? Regrets consume our thoughts? Does a bright light appear at the end of a tunnel? For most people, it will be a slower process, one eased with preparedness, good humor, and a bit of faith. At the forefront of changing attitudes around palliative care is hospice nurse Hadley Vlahos, who shows that end-of-life care can teach us just as much about how to live as it does about how we die.

Vlahos was raised in a strict religious household, but began questioning her beliefs in high school after the sudden death of a friend. When she got pregnant at nineteen, she was shunned by her community and enrolled herself in nursing school to be able to support herself and her baby. But nursing soon became more than a job: when she focused on palliative care and hospice work, it became a calling.

In The In-Between, Vlahos recounts the most impactful experiences she’s had with the people she’s worked with—from the woman who never once questioned her faith until she was close to death, to the older man seeing visions of his late daughter, to the young patient who laments that she spent too much of her short life worrying about what others thought of her—while also sharing her own fascinating journey.

Written with profound insight, humility, and respect, The In-Between is a heartrending memoir that shows how caring for others can transform a life while also offering wisdom and comfort for those dealing with loss and providing inspiration for how to live now.”

Podcast picks…

Where do you draw your strength? Join TODAY’s Hoda Kotb as she continues on a journey of self-discovery and exploration of the resilience of the human spirit. Hoda hears from some of the people she admires most, and whose testimonies of compassion provide lessons for how to make space for whatever it is you may be seeking in life right now. Like Hoda, you’ll leave these talks stronger than when you started and inspired to make space for growth and change in your own life.

Mind/Body connections…

These beautiful colors of these fractal flame images combined with the gently changing forms of a slowly rotating kaleidoscope is a soothing and relaxing experience. Enjoy!