What do moms do best? The answer to that is easy, "just about everything". Mom is the hub that the family revolves around; she is the driving force behind the moral, ethical and spiritual direction of the family. When I look back on my own life, I see a strong grandmother, mother and three daughters who were without a doubt, the power point in the lives of the family. I dedicated one of my books, (In Search Of Paradise) to my own mom who shaped just about everything I am today. My father gave me the particulars, but my mom gave me the world. We look to our mother for advice, counseling, support, acceptance, recognition and that all important factor, love. She is always ready to fill in were we have a need and puts us back on track when...

Me – ‘Hi Mom, how are you?’ Mom – ‘Hi, I was waiting for you call yesterday’ Me – ‘Ah… why?’ Mom- - ‘Well, yesterday was your weekly holiday and you usually call on that day’ She had been waiting for my call. Suddenly, realization hit me. Parents look forward  and wait for their children to call or visit them. Their lives, even after children grow up, revolve around them but in a different way. But how much time and thought do WE give our parents other than what is duty bound? Do our lives revolve around theirs? I am not insinuating that we do not appreciate them or love them. It is the time factor. How much TIME do we give our parents? The sentence - ‘Well, yesterday was your weekly holiday and you usually call on that...

Last week I stood next to a very dear friend whose brother had died suddenly, and unexpectedly, at the young age of 64.  In a few weeks I'll be 64.  Really made me think about a lot of things.... First, how important it is to simply be there when our friends need us.  There is nothing for us to particularly do, just showing up is what really matters. Second, how important it is to keep living fully, here and now, and make sure that the people we care about know that we love them, and that they matter to us. She told me they had spent time with him in the hospital when they thought he was simply under observation and would be going home soon.  Their whole family had gathered and sat around his bed talking and laughing with him.  The...

Do you have harmonious relationships with all of your close family members and are you aware how this can affect your heart and energy on a daily basis?  People who I looked after that had close family relationships, laughing and joking with their loved ones in hospital would often be full of life and vitality just minutes before they went to bed for the last time, smiling and passing away in their sleep. This was incredible to witness and always gave me hope that death could be a potentially pleasant experience. After all, we all get to die one day - it is only a question of how.  One of the biggest issues that came up repeatedly during my time as a nurse that affected heart health and energy was unresolved family relationships.  ...

My friend Maddie might be the youngest Life Entrepreneur I have written about.  She's 3 1/2 years old, and quite busily carving out the life she wants to live.  Almost every Sunday she goes swimming with my friend Lida, her grandmother, who is very committed to making sure she swims well enough to stay safe in the pool. After they swim each week, Grandma gives Maddie a quarter to buy a Popsicle treat, but a couple of weeks ago, Grandma looked in her bag and realized she had no money, no quarter, nothing. She explained to Maddie that this week, there would be no Popsicle. Maddie looked at the concession stand, and fervently exclaimed that THEY had quarters, and THEY had Popsicles over THERE!  And they just needed to go over there and g...

Those with natural empathy intact, who are fully responsive, whose ability to respond is intact, need no rules, nor do they require any regulation. Empathy is the ability to discern the CONTENT of the other. It is built on self empathy. Self empathy is to a large degree developed through the child-mother bonding process, in that it is the environment that the new born grows in that is most crucial to her or his development. Environment means the psychological, emotional, material realities into which the child is born. In utero, the child is in a fully empathic reality, connected to her or his mother in profound ways. They are as one. The child in utero is sensing not only her own world, but that of the mother as well. The evidenc...

MY FATHER MY FATHER WAS A GENTLE  MAN. HE WAS BORN ON MARCH 19, 1895. HE WAS A MAN OF LITTLE FORMAL EDUCATION. WHEN HE COMPLETED THE SIXTH GRADE HE WALKED AWAY FROM SCHOOL AND NEVER WENT BACK, HE WAS A MAN OF IDEAS AND DREAMS. HE COULD ADD THREE COLUMNS OF NUMBERS IN HIS HEAD WITH SIMPLE EASE. WHEN HE WAS TWELVE YEARS OLD, HE FOUND OUT HE WAS ADOPTED. NOT ONLY THAT, BUT HE LEARNED THAT HIS MOTHER WAS A FULL BLOOD INDIAN. HIS ADOPTED MOTHER WAS ACTUALLY HIS AUNT. HE WAS ADOPTED TO REPLACE A CHILD THAT SHE HAD, WHO HAD DIED EARLY IN LIFE. HE WAS APPROXIMATLY THE SAME AGE AS THIS DEAD CHILD, SO WHEN HIS FATHER BROUGHT HIM TO CINCINNATI AND ASKED ONE OF HIS SISTER'S TO RAISE THE BOY, THE ONE, WHO HAD LOST HER CHILD, AGREED TO ADOPT HIM....

My son Noah calls me every day as he leaves work to sort of download the day, get things off his chest, tell me about work problems, talk things over.  The salient part of that experience for me is to see how important it is to him that he does a good job.  He really cares about that.  To him, his job is more than just work, it is a vital part of his very existence and to not do it well is anathema to him! Where did that come from?  He has often been asked why he understands so much about management, since he is a chef--and some of them are much more cooking oriented than management oriented.  He tells them that he grew up watching his mom run a business, watching his dad work really hard as a salesman, watching his grandparents work r...

One of my granddaughters gave me the idea for this article. She asked for some suggestions for a dessert she was making for a Pot-luck dinner with an Indian Theme. When I used to visit schools, one of the first questions I was asked was...What did Indians eat? The Three Sisters (Maize (Corn). Squash, and Beans, were the most commonly grown vegetables for many of the native people. They complimented each other as the bean vines climbed the corn stalks and the squash grew in between the stalks to keep out the weeds. According to many origin stories, they, along with tobacco, were the gift of First Woman (Mother Earth), to her children. They first grew from her body after she was buried. Before the people had to depend on wild plant...

Heart Dis-ease – Are You At Risk? Having spent so many years working on Cardiac Care Units and lost close family members to sudden heart attacks, I know the devastating effects that a heart disease can lead to. So many lives are ripped apart each year through the failure to understand and diagnose the early warning signs. A heart attack is the result of your head not understanding the everyday messages of your heart. Your heart is not just the muscle that pumps blood around your body, keeping you alive, it is also the centre of your emotional intelligence. The energy of the heart manifests through your emotions (energy in motion). Allowing this energy to run and taking the time to feel what is going on in your body, without judgm...