A Magic Formula

It has been a hectic few months and I have missed writing. I am growing much more comfortable with my new ADHD coaching staff position the last 4 months and am finding my way through other new transitions. Frequently when we are with self-doubt and anxiety over something new, it is simply because we are GROWING.

GROWING PAINS (remember a different form of these from childhood)?

Easy to forget this but so good to remember.

The magic formula that I want to pipe in about however is about fitness. What I have been noticing around me, especially with post-menopausal women, is that their heartrates aren't getting up high enough with workout routines, such as yoga and walking, for optimum fitness. There was a formula I learned maybe 30 years ago for getting the heartrate up. You may remember it. You subtract your age from 220 and then take 65-75% of this number to find your optimal maximum heartrate per minute.

So for me being 60-years-old, my maximum heartrate is found here:

220-60= 160 and then 65-75% of this is 104-136 beats per minute. Because I have been a life long athlete I always shoot for at least 136 beats per minute if not much higher

We should be getting our heartrate in this range for at least for 20 minutes, 3 times a week. This may be a slightly outdated formula but for me it has worked really well for years.

To find out what your heartrate is (right when you stop exercising), put a finger on your pulse at your neck and count how many beats you get for 10 seconds. Then multiply this number by 6 to see how many times your heart is beating per minute.

Also, another number to keep our eye is our BMI (body mass index). It should be below 25. You can find out what yours is HERE.

I also want to say that I have heard from 4 people recently that they are having good success with weight loss through intermittent fasting. Fasting for 16 hours and eating only for 8 hours each day. But keeping to the same schedule each day. There is tons of info on the web about this if you are interested and want to trim down.

Have a good long weekend everyone.

Louise 💗

Sparkly Bright Minds

With a lifetime of experience with ADHD, and as my courage coaching practice grows, I have discovered a big need for ADHD coaching and am now specializing in it. 

There is a lot to love and celebrate about having ADHD:

Those with it are usually highly creative, empathic and tenacious. 

They are good problem solvers, have great imaginations, a sense of humor and are keen observers. 

They are known for their love of, and ability, to multi-task, on a grand scale. When interested in something, ADHDers capability to hyper-focus and accomplish, is like a superpower. 

ADHDers are also endlessly curious, with perpetual energy and a real zest for life.They are often big adventurers.  

Most ADHDers are warm, loving, caring and wear their heart on their sleeve.

They also have quick minds and tend to be deep thinkers.

These are just a handful of the positive traits of ADHD.

More difficult traits of having ADHD can be:

The emotional volatility, impulsiveness, impatience, hyper-activity and disorganization that some have.

ADHD traits vary greatly between people.

Most however, have the inability to concentrate on things that don't interest them, because they are very easily bored. They have a VERY high need for stimulation and because of this, can be big risk takers. 

ADHDers also frequently lack a filter when they speak, because they don't think to pause (oversharing is common).

They can also often feel and appear restless.

Some things that aren't as commonly known about ADHD:

ADHD is a chemical, neurological disorder, as the brain has a dopamine deficiency.

90% of people with ADHD have inherited it from their parents. It's more predominant in families than height. 

ADHD can affect the ability to plan, so if people have a great idea, which they often do, it can be difficult to make a plan to accomplish their vision.

They also have a hard time making decisions. Making choices can be very hard and even when they do make them, they often change their minds and don't trust their decision.

It can be hard to make decisions because everything in life appears to be equally important.

Decisions are also often made with emotion, instead of being able to calm the amygdala in the brain down enough to take a pause and think things through.

Some ADHDers also have a hard time seeing their future.

Many ADHDers can be highly sensitive to crowds, over- stimulus, such as light and noise, other people's feelings, personal criticism and pain. They basically have high sensitivity to many kinds of energy.

ADHDers also have a hard time learning from mistakes they have made and can't see the effects that their decisions have on their future. 

They also have a hard time changing a bad habit into a good habit. This is why it is hard for ADHDers to stop self-medicating with alcohol, drugs and food etc and make healthy lifestyle changes.

ADHDers usually need to have someone to exercise with, such as a team or fitness coach, or at least a class, because they have a hard time exercising on their own.

Some with ADHD wait (and wait) for the perfect moment to get things done. This is partly because they often are perfectionists. The thing to remember is that getting something 80% done, or even less, is good enough and that nothing needs to be perfect.

ADHD is an issue with the operating system of the brain.

Thoughts and feelings can hold ADHDers hostage and stuck.

Writing down thoughts, feelings and successes can be hugely helpful, as are checklists.

Not having a meal and sleep schedule is also common. 

Balancing life can be difficult.

Where having an ADHD coach can help:

As a coach, I help clients realize their incredible strengths and help them problem solve to achieve what they want.

I guide them to connect to their passion and their values, goals and purpose.

I help them to follow their hearts and find what works for them personally.

And find their juice, what lights them up, and let go of things that don't spark joy.

I guide clients to pay attention to what they are always looking for.

I help with self-regulation and structure.

With not giving up.

And the frequently present, negative self-talk.

I help clients become more mindful to quell the intense emotions, energy and ruminations in their brains.

I help them to change the channel.

I especially like coaching because I get to help clients open up their world.

Especially now, 

as the world, so thankfully, opens back up.

A New Year Begins

Happy New Year to you all. We've rounded a corner and here awaits, a new road and maybe even a bit of magic perhaps? 👀

We shall see.

Already I feel like there is going to be some new magic happening on January 21st when agent orange leaves office. 

A few months ago, I began wondering, like many of you I'm sure, how the hell I am going to survive this winter? 

What do I want to have done when I come out the other end of it? What is going to keep me content & occupied during this time? 

So I began to make a list:

* Dig out my big pile of journals from the basement, dating back as far as 4th grade and read them.

* Go through my file drawers and chuck all the info that I no longer need.

* Cozy up my home more by wallpapering one wall in my bedroom (I bought the wallpaper several months ago and there it has sat), buy new textiles and whatever else catches my eye.

 

* Continue swimming as long as I can outdoors. I just ordered a much thicker wetsuit and I'm curious how far into the winter it will take me. Walden Pond may freeze but the bay in Boston, where I swam today, won't. Cold water swimming gets less scary and more euphotic the longer I do it. There was a great article about it keeping people sane yesterday in the NYTimes, if you're interested, HERE.

* I have been playing a beloved game called SETTLERS OF CATAN online since Covid hit but I want to find a new game to play online with my sister. Does anyone have one they can recommend? I'm thinking Scrabble as one idea.

* Continue to strengthen my core to support my healed, but once fractured, 5th vertebrae, from a year ago.

* Complete the 12-week book/support group that I just committed to, THE ARTIST'S WAY.

* I also might want to take an online astrology class but maybe this will be too much right now.

* Get out and snow shoe, ski and ice skate.

* Meet my kids for walks & skating in Maine.

* Keep peculating on a story I want to pitch to the NYTimes & gather the courage to send it to them (it’s not about my 32 year long marriage).  

* Read more.

* Finish knitting the sweater I started when Covid hit.

* Pamper myself. My favorite way of doing this has always been massages but I can at least take hot Epsom salt baths and do other things like get my haircut.

One last thing this week-

I was sent a helpful article recently from Ten Percent Happier called THE LONELY WINTER. Truly helpful & comforting.

We're going to make it through this.

We're going to make it through this.

In peace, until next time,

Louise

Remind Me

 Most of us are probably familiar with the Reminders App on an Iphone.

This little app has revolutionized my life. Because of it, gone are the post-it notes on my mirror, doors and car dash board- as well as those scribbled in ink on the back of my hand.

Amen halleluja.

 Maybe this is old news to many of you but in case it isn't read on.

For instance, do you need to remember to get gas? 

Just say to Siri, " Remind me to get gas today (or tomorrow) at 8AM" and she'll set the reminder for you.

It's like we have a little assistant right in palm of our hands.

We can also have her set daily health reminders such as:

8am- take vitamins

12:00pm- drink plenty of water

10:30pm- get to bed early for optimal health & beauty rest :-)

We can set weekly reminders: 

Thursday at 9am- take out the garbage & recycling.

Saturday at 10am- water the houseplants

We can set monthly reminders:

First of the month- do bills

15th of the month- renew swim pass

We can set annual reminders:

Car inspection

Put snow tires on/take them off.

Yada yada yada...

But here's the best thing-

We can set mental reminders for behavior modification. For instance, when we almost butt heads with someone and want to skip the drama- 

"Take a breath, let it settle, go into self for a minute and then respond (or not)." 

And even better than this, we can set affirmations for ourselves. 

Oh yes, so good...

" I don't take what others are going through personally."

 "Trust the process."

"Remember to always listen to my heart"

Have a good week my lovelies.

We're going to make it through this crazier than crazy time.

💗

Six Feet Together

Photo by Caroline J. Fernandes

I've been thinking about writing this post the last few weeks, as my thoughts keep fermenting, as life continues to morph, into the unknown.

For now, I'd like to set aside the devastating health tragedies and sorrows, the crippling financial impact and Mister Agent Orange.

Just for a minute,

in this unprecedented time, as we try and move forward, without any answers or frame of reference for a pandemic.

Suddenly it feels as if the world is shrinking, this virus being the greatest unifier and equalizer ever. We are all in a shake down, living life upside-down, together.

But yet apart.

I love that we are more dependent on each other than we have ever been. As moral support, dropping food off at doorsteps, saving each other from the abyss of boredom. Not to mention the incredible sacrifices those on the front lines in the medical world are coming forth with.

Life is changing every day, asking all of us to do less, give more and live very differently.

Life is asking us to rethink and I find such beauty in this.

A good friend of mine shared, "We always want the situation to change, not realizing we were placed in it, so that we may change."

Truly.

What a disorienting situation this is but there is so much that is being illuminated. So much that we are facing as individuals and as a collective, as we face this global crisis.

To evolve perhaps into a new way of being together?

What if we became curious with this alone time and had no mission other than to experience being? What might we find in the quietness, not just in the night, but now in our days?

What if a true purpose is found in this new space?

I believe this pause is filled with opportunity. Not the opportunity to get the taxes done or finish a book or master something, but the opportunity to get comfortable in our uncomfortableness. The opportunity to be without a path forward, for the first time in our lives.

All over the world people are slowing way down and reflecting.

To perhaps what truly matters.

To love.

I've been lying on my bed and just staring up at the ceiling some mornings. I actually became so still the other morning that I saw one of the lilies in a vase next to my bed, spring open. This I had never seen before, except in time-lapse photography.

So what does it all mean?

I don't know.

All I know is that there is some crazy good things going on in between all the heartache, personal struggles and anxiety.

Good things that we haven't been able to see and live nearly as well, until now.

People singing & playing instruments for each other across alley ways, skies less filled with gas fumes, wildlife benefiting, strangers giving their phone numbers to the elderly, so that they may have someone to call in need and the burst of art and creativity that is exploding everywhere.

All over the world people are looking at their neighbors and the people they pass on the street, in a new way.

In a new light.

Perhaps this is all as it is suppose to be.



Sending love your way,
every day,

 💗Louise

Tiny New Habits

This brief Ted Talk by BJ FOGG, who wrote Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything, is very good.

Doing two push-ups after every time we pee? What a novel idea :-)

The First Story

1969 with our foreign exchange student from the Netherlands

As Emerson said, we see our life in glimpses and glances. 

I’ve arrived in my childhood home, where it all began, and I’m knowing it for the first time. 

I look around. 

What comes to me when I think of spiritual here? 

It was 1961 when I was born. 

My siblings were ages 14, 12, 9, and 8-years-old when I arrived. For all my childhood, I was a keen observer of the 4 of them and they shed the love upon me, that my parents taught us to share through example. When I think about spiritually in my upbringing, I think about love and light and the interconnectedness of not just human beings but all living things on earth. 

My baptism ( check out my mom's hat)

My parents loved each other deeply and supported their five kids with compassion for where we each were in our lives. They were usually conscious about not making their agenda our agenda, which allowed our spirits to bloom and grow. 

MY DAD WAS AN ATHEIST AND MY MOM WAS A PRESBYTERIAN, but he escorted her to church on Sunday because he thought the sermons were thought-provoking and he liked the community of church, as well as being with her.

There were never any conversations about God in our home as I remember (except when my hippie siblings revolted against going to church and said that there was no such thing as a God) but I know that spirituality lived in them, even though I couldn’t possibly articulate this then.

I always had the feeling that my parents were incredibly grateful for everything that they had and I don’t mean materialistically. I think they understood that health and life could change on a dime and they showed their gratitude for living daily, with a blessing at night before dinner.

They brought other people into the nest of our home frequently and put their wings around visitors as if they were their own.  

There was a feeling in MY CHILDHOOD HOME that I was in the right place and it wasn’t just because I felt very loved. I think it was partly the light coming in the windows, the classical music that was frequently playing, my dad whistling, the aroma of my mom’s good cooking and the affection that was given each night before bedtime. It was a safe and nurturing place to grow up and I felt very grateful for this, once I was old enough to visit other homes and realized that not everyone was as blessed as I was.

When I think of spirituality in my childhood home, I also think of the five senses. My parents were both such sensuous beings. They were tapped into beauty, touch, taste, smell and sound and I believe they were also tapped into the sixth sense of intuition. I don’t think this was ever articulated but they were both keen observers and very deep in their own way, as well as connected to nature profoundly.

This is my first story.

Untethered

Mount Washington's tippy-top

For the first time in 36 years years I am truly a free-floater. If anyone had told me 3 years ago that I would be where I am right now and living alone, I would've been scared to death.

Of course I had thought of the possibility myself, but quickly slammed the door on the likelihood of it happening, as if what lived on the other side of the door was the biggest boogie monster of them all.

Me, untethered to anyone other than my dear family & friends.

Dangling in the abyss, without the grounding cord of a long, long marriage. Finding my way through murky waters, a lone traveler, on a densely fog-filled road.

Those were the sort of visions I'd have in the middle of the night early on.

"But fears are just stories we tell ourselves,” I’d say to myself.

"Do what you're afraid to do," I'd say in the darkness of the night.

So many people make their way alone in life, at least for awhile.

Could I be one of them?

Yes.

Because for me there finally came a fork in the road, in the marriage that I was trying to save.

At the fork, there was a new road that I had begun to pave for myself and I finally decided to take it.

Working to save my marriage felt like a bolder that I was trying to push up hill for way too long. So I stepped aside the bolder and allowed it to roll effortlessly past me.

We know a decision is right when every cell in our body applauds us in relief. This is how I felt when I let the bolder go.

The past 3 years gave me time to grow closer to my soul and what I need and don't need to carry on.

My soul is my partner right now, and it feels so right and so good.

And the new road I'm on,

is exactly where I should be. 💗

A New Path

I took this photo of my feet in early October, soon after I made the hardest decision of my life.

My wonderful whole-life coach, ELIZABETH ELLIS, told me recently that I have a story to tell.

She is right, I do.

I just haven't yet been able to share it.

This is partly because I have been busy with coaching school etc but also because I am still putting my thoughts together in just how to share it.

In one regard, it is a simple story actually. I could write it in one sentence. I could just say-

After 36 years, I have decided to conclude my marriage.

But saying this makes it feel like it landed like a thud and it was not a thud.

It has been a 3+ year process of letting the rocks tumble and allowing the pebbles to settle, whilst I found my way through to clarity, of what truly resonates for me, in order to make a decision.

It has actually been a celebration of sorts. A huge relief in many ways after years of being in a sometimes torturous quandary. But also a deep sadness of pulling apart my family, at least temporarily, as we all redefine what our family is.

A few days ago, as we gathered for Thanksgiving, I could see that the redefining and the healing has begun. As a mother and as a friend, I am beyond grateful for this, as we all continue to mourn how life has always been.

Recently someone explained to me that when one piece of steel is welded to another piece, the weld is stronger than the steel itself. This may seem a crazy perspective to see a divorce through but maybe there is an analogy here in terms of the new family strength that I think is forthcoming, for all of us.

Or maybe it's just that my dad was a metallurgical engineer and had a metal fabricating company that involved a lot of welding, that something rang true in this for me, from him.

But I also feel sure in my heart now that many things are meant to fall apart and that this new bumpy road that we are all on is a better path than the bumpier one we've been on.

I've known for awhile that I would be the one that would need to steer our family down this new road.

For my children especially, because there is nothing worse than being at the effect of a parent's quandary.

I feel bad that it took me so long to do it for us, but it was important that I turned over the last stone and I needed time in order to do this. There was no rushing it for me.

Times heals all, it's true.

More pieces of this story to come I imagine, when the moment feels right.

Until then,
in love & light,

Louise

Notes To Self

Every so often I like to reread this list I made many years ago, when the blog was young, titled "10 Easy Ways to Age Gracefully Today".

I am re-titling it now to "Ten Easy Ways To Feel Better Right Now" :-)

I haven't looked at this list during my tumultuous last few years and I wish I had, as it holds some good Louise truths and reminders.

The good news is that I am rising from the muck, and things, in so many ways, are on the upswing. But more on this in the future, as it's not the easiest of stories to share.

So here is the list again. For me and for you <3

• If you can't change it, move on.Thou shall not stew.

• Stop getting stuck in your story about woulda. coulda. shoulda. and get on with doing what you love to do.

• Surround yourself with loving, low-maintenance people who increase your vitality instead of rob it.

• Remember that aging is part of the wondrous cycle of life. It is normal and it is what is suppose to happen, just like getting our baby teeth.

• Take care of that pesky task that has been hanging over your head for way too long. It won't take nearly as long as you think it will.

• Have an orgasm.

Did I just say that?

• Stop worrying about what other people think. It's your life.

• Don’t forget that human's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated. Acknowledge someone.

• Get over your fear. Fear is normal, so embrace it and then you can move past it.

• Take care of yourself physically, emotionally and mentally. Be your own best friend. It is the foundation for a good long life.

Photo by Jef Bettens, Limburg, Belgium

A Vibration, A feeling, A Thought

I'm not a big prayer, at least not in the typical sense.
Someone told me recently that what we think about is actually like praying.

"Thinking is like praying," she said.

So it's best to think good thoughts so that negative thoughts, or worries, don't become reality.
So that we don't give strength and life to them
or a tree to grow on.

What we think about, we become.
Like lovely little affirmations.
Like little bits of golden gifts to ourselves.

Sending love and prayers out into the world to you all today.
xo,
Louise

Into My Heart

This photo of my mom was taken when she was my age.

Almost every afternoon since I can remember, she made a point of setting the timer on the kitchen stove and taking a nap for 20 minutes.

A mother of five, stealing some time for herself to rejuvenate, between her piles of ironing, making pie-crusts, canning peaches and putting a wholesome dinner on the table, every night of the week.

She was the epitome of mindfulness, way before it was ever a common word in our culture. Before we all grew so busy with double income households, in order to pay for life's necessities, and before smartphones took over our lives.

She passed away already 3 weeks ago but I found her again several days ago, in my heart.

This is where she has moved to, where I can still touch her now and hold her. Where I can take her with me anywhere.

Where I can call on her for strength.

My Mama's Reds

My mom's beautiful 96-year-old hands, like parchment paper.

My mama turned 96 yesterday. She has also remarkably, and very gratefully, turned a corner within her dementia, to a much happier place, as of late.

The last 10 months have been a harrowing experience for her and for me, as she further lost her memory and slipped into acute paranoia, calling me sometimes several times a day, in utter panic about not just the safety of her own life but for her loved ones as well.

This is a woman who had, until then, lived a life of balance and happiness. A woman who raised five children and had a long, loving, 58-year marriage to my Dad. She is also a woman, who grew up with a bi-polar mother and never really processed how that affected her. As my mom's dementia settled in, so did her fears that she was becoming her mom. The underbelly of what showed up was her trepidation of what people thought of her, something that she no doubt worried about since childhood but kept under wraps, until she could no longer.

Three things came to her rescue this past year: Medication (although it took awhile to get it right), her willingness to seek counseling, at the ripe old age of 95, and her red plaid blankets.

Oh yes, and one more thing, vanilla ice cream.

The Christmas before last, she purchased an innumerable collection of red plaid fleece blankets to give as gifts. The multiple purchases were also coupled with confusion, of how many she had bought and who she had already given them to (par for the course at 94...or even at age 55, as I was having a hard time keeping track). My initial thought about the blankets was, that although they were very synthetically luxurious, they were a far cry from the wool blankets that I grew up with and loved. I thought they were kind of icky. To her however, they were a heavenly comfort, better than a stuffed teddy bear. She kept two for herself (as you can see in the photo below) and they became the security blanket that helped usher her over the hump, of losing her mind.

In recent months she has lovingly referred to them as "My reds". On the worst of her days, I came to her rescue. Equipped with vanilla ice cream, I would wrap her in her reds, sing to her and hold her, reaching for solace, to appease not only her, but myself. It is only now that I can look back in reflection, through my tears, and begin to see the subtle beauty of those moments.

One of things that has helped me to cope, the past several cold winter months, is the same thing that has helped her. At night, in an effort to bring myself comfort and sleep, I wrap my body in my own red, before pulling the duvet over my shoulders. Wrapped in this little cocoon of coziness, I've been sleeping very deeply on many nights, like a relatively content, newborn woman.

At the same time, my youngest daughter has been there for me through my struggle and her own, whilst wrapped in her own cocoon of coziness too. <3

Merry Christmas Crafting

Christmas is one of those love/hate traditions for me. I love crafting, wrapping gifts, making cards and being together but I don't like all the commercialism and the pressure to get everything done on time. This year I successfully stayed out of the mall, purchased some things online and made lots of felted wool garlands while my youngest daughter baked her heart out and also made these fabulous gingerbread candlesticks that I posted about several years back.

This year she also sliced oranges and baked them slowly in the oven at 200 degrees for 6 hours. A garland of them is hanging in our kitchen window and looks so very beautiful when the light shines through them.

I made a little video for Instagram of the ramshackle Christmas chaos in our kitchen over the last several days, as it all came together ( see below).

Wherever you are, I hope you are safe & sound and have friends or family around you.

Merry Christmas, from my home to yours.

xo,
Louise

And So It Is

I've been struggling lately with the world dragging me by the hand.

I bet some of you can relate.

It seems that the only remedy recently for me is to get out in nature, write in my journal or slip under water and swim. So many concerns and details swirling around me.

In my life I have loved ones being challenged. One in each area of the body, mind and spirit. I'm trying like the dickens to not let their struggles be my struggle but when you love someone it's hard to do. I keep reminding myself that we are all on different journeys.

Getting involved with someone elses's journey is like picking up someone else's knitting project, painting on their canvas or eating off their plate.

It's easy for me to not turn on the news and ignore all the concern about North Korea and the culture war that is happening at the University of Virginia. This is one of the biggest gifts to myself perhaps.

I think that the best thing for anyone to do is to detach with love and keep doing what we brings us pleasure and take very good care of our body, mind and spirit.

And also remember that almost all things shall pass.

Hope you're all having a good week.

With love and light,
Louise

The Secret

A new 75-year-old Harvard study has found the one secret leading to a fulfilling life.

No surprises here, just reassurance.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

With love from me to you,

Louise

The Best Medicine

Another great video from one of my favorite people, Christiane Northrup, in the field of women's health.

Dr. Oz also discusses the health benefits of orgasm here. 

Natural medicine that doesn't cost a penny :-)

Remind Me

Most of us are probably familiar with the Reminders App on an Iphone.

This little app has revolutionized my life in the past year. Because of it, gone are the post-it notes on my mirror, doors and car dash board- as well as those scribbled in ink on the back of my hand.


Amen halleluja.

For instance- Need to remember to get gas? 

Just say to Siri, " Remind me to get gas today ( or tomorrow) at 8AM" and she'll set the reminder for you.

It's like we have a little assistant right in our hands.

We can also go into the app and set daily health reminders such as:

8am- take vitamins

5:00pm- drink plenty of water

10:30pm- get to bed early for optimal health & beauty rest :-)

We can set weekly reminders: 

Thursday at 9am- take out the garbage & recycling.

Remember to give mom some loving touch. 

We can set monthly reminders:

First of the month- do bills

15th of the month- renew the swim pass

We can set annual reminders:

Car inspection

Put snow tires on/take off.

Yada yada yada...

But here's the best thing-

We can set mental reminders for behavior modification. For instance, when we reach a head-butt with someone and want to skip the drama- 

"Take a breath, let it settle, go into self for a minute and then respond." 

Oh man is this one good for me.

And even better than this, we can set affirmations for ourselves. 

Oh yes, so good...

" I don't take what others are going through personally."

 "I trust the process."

"I radiate love & light ."

XOXO

Twenty-Seventeen

I couldn't help posting this because it's so accurate and funny. The delicious coconut macaroons dipped in dark chocolate that I had a love affair with, not to mention the plentiful glasses of cheer, are now living not so peacefully on my thighs omgoddie. On this last day of the year I'm looking forward to a sugar detox to ring in the new year.

Well not a total sugar detox but just scaling back to my little bits of daily dark chocolate delights :-)

Happy New Year to you all!

May we do what we love to do and do it often.

Xo,
Louise

Blessings Eternal

In the end, when all the hunting and gathering was done, love and my Christmas spirit arrived and I had a really nice time hosting. I think I just need to allow my pre-holiday frustrations to seep out sometimes, kind of like letting the air out of an overly full balloon.

On Christmas Eve my sister read a poem with a lovely message. It seemed especially poignant this year:

What is Christmas?

It is tenderness of the past,

courage for the future.

 It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow 

with blessings rich and eternal,

and that every path may lead to peace.

                       ~ Agnes Pharo

I hope that this year, you felt some blessings eternal too.

xo,
Louise