Chaos. Quiet. Chocolate.

Yesterday I managed to sneak an hour and spend time doing something I really love – sipping Starbucks and wandering a bookstore, alone.  When I need a bit of quiet or a break from all the rushing and hurrying and doing, that’s where you’ll find me.  An hour’s wander there is like three hours anywhere else; somehow time seems to slow down within those four walls. And it reminded me of another time I wrote about this,...

NYC – Once is Never Enough

Last month, I visited New York City for the first time.  It was almost in disbelief that I got off the plane, knowing this place that had attracted me so was finally mine to explore, experience, enjoy.  Fifth Avenue, Central Park, Tiffany’s, the Museum of Modern Art, the restaurants, even the crowds…bliss.  Even the corner market felt different. I was in the city for a conference, held right in the hotel where I was...

A Lesson in Beauty

My daughter likes to make bracelets out of anything shaped like a ring.  If it can be slid onto her wrist to dangle and spin, it becomes a “pretty”.  At twenty months old, this seems to be her first recognition of beauty.  The first thing she has ever used to adorn herself, to show off to us as if to say, “Don’t I look pretty?”  Of course she does.  She has bright eyes, a smile full of dimples and skin that...

Story Time

Evening arrives.  My husband and five year old son are walking hand in hand up the stairs. “Tell me a story about Gormagon.” my boy asks.  There is the barest of pauses. “Well, when we last talked about Gormagon, he had just won the battle against the Chinese emperor, right?” “Right.” And off to bed they go, already lost in the story; my husband, the storyteller, and my five year old.  That’s what you get...