A new year

Welcome to the New Year! That’s what I want to say to 2021!

We’ve been waiting for you! We have high hopes for you!

Bring that COVID vaccine on ! Open schools once again so that children can resume their normal lives. Let doctors and nurses and first responders get a break. Let small businesses come alive again. Let people go back to work. Let grandparents visit in person with their grandchildren.

\Let us all be grateful.

Let parents feel a sense of job well done – “schooling” their children while working at home – juggling sometimes more than they are able.

Let hope and gratefulness and anticipation reign. Let patience and understanding and wisdom be a part of it all – as we wait to return to the lives we led before the pandemic. As we wait to embrace what we once all took for granted.

But 2021 – honestly – we’re ready. And we hope this will all happen on your watch!

Wishing all of you, my friends, a 2021 to celebrate and behold!

a few minutes

Things are different this holiday season – for sure.

But we have a beautiful little live Christmas tree that stands and twinkles at me – especially when I am the last one up in the evening (which is always) and all is quiet and serene.

It’s then that I feel it is just between us – the tree and me – and I find myself lost in its serenity.

And I’m grateful for so many things – and the beauty and peacefulness that this tree offers me.

It challenges me to fall under its spell – to remember, to hope, to smile, to dream of not only the fun and beauty of past years – but the present one as well. And I’m reminded to be thankful and grateful for health and family and young children and old friends – and next year!

So … Happy Holidays to each and everyone of you – my friends – and if there is a Christmas tree in your life this year – take a few minutes – just the two of you –– and listen.

looking for answers

Most of the time politics is a subject to be avoided – at all costs – in a group or public setting – or – most definitely, a weekly blog from The Parenting Place.

But I listened recently to a group of House of Representative members – 25 Democrats and 25 Republicans – who call themselves the Problem Solvers Caucus.

They are relatively new members of Congress – and they’re earnest in at least trying to get significant progress made – by actually sharing and listening to each other – hearing each other – and hoping to come to agreements in this manner.

And I felt a sense of hope because that’s what progress and compromise and problem solving is – listening, being heard, examining, respecting, trusting.

And, of course, for me it always comes back to families – our families.

And, in our families, we can do the same. I know how easy it is to have an opinion, a strong opinion, and how hard it is at times to give another’s opinion a listening ear.

But – if we can do one thing to make our relationship and families stronger and more effective – more resourceful and more loving and- our children’s lives more peaceful and more secure-, it is to practice this very type of communicating with one another – listening, hearing, trusting.

Looking for answers together.

It’s called family – it’s called parenting!

Dear ….

I’ve been thinking – feeling – during this pre-holiday season – that perhaps this is the year for me to resume sending holiday greetings through the mail.

It seems for several years now, that the number of holiday cards I’ve received or sent – has really dwindled.

And I miss it! And during such a time like this – when social interactions are so limited and Zoom-like – I’m feeling a need to reach out in a more personal and warm way.

I’m not thinking just a signature – but a line or two – something you miss about not seeing them – something you look forward to in the future – a memory that’s stayed with you – a funny moment shared.

As a child, I remember what seemed to me a ton of cards that arrived daily to our home. It was a big part of the holiday season to sort through all of the many cards, choose favorites, think about who sent them, and, in some cases, as a child, I would have to ask who these people even were.

And it would be extra exciting if, sometimes, one or two would even come addressed just to me.!

There’s something about seeing a friend’s – a relative’s handwriting – that feels almost like a hug – definitely a warm connection that is meaningful and special to discover among the advertisements and junk mail that arrives in our mailboxes daily.

So – I’m suggesting you might want to join me – pick out a few people you know that might really appreciate being remembered, take pen in hand and jot a memory and a holiday wish .

I believe it will brighten both of your days.

“Dear….”

. I’m so ready to do this!