Customer service that has me free and laughing!

Here’s one more reason I am loving Canada! My daughter had a challenge with an employee of the Toronto Transit Commission.  Incensed, I wrote the TTC.  Two Fridays ago, I received a telephone call replete with apologies, and today received a formal letter, the contents of which I reproduce here.  “Free and laughing” means loving […]

How to live gratitude – just for a moment

Check out “Today’s Bright Spark” from Carmen C (scroll right and down).  It is beautiful. To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven. – Johannes A. Gaertner It is one thing to speak and enact gratitude.  But what does it mean […]

Wherever you go, good manners will keep you free and laughing!

“You frightened me” squealed the lady early Saturday morning.  I was on my way to class and was walking out of my complex.  She was ahead of me, but I was a tad late so I was walking faster.  As I overtook her, I singsonged “Goodd morrningggg”.  She jumped – frightened that a stranger would […]

Procrastination – friend or foe?

Last week I committed to a 75-day Action Challenge Program, hosted on Facebook by Julette Millen.  Yesterday, Julette asked us to consider the habit that is most holding us back and to write a paragraph on it.  Here is my “paragraph”: The one habit that I know keeps me back is PROCRASTINATION.  I am quite […]

7 steps to finding the positive value in negative emotions

There is nothing wrong with negative emotions.  Our emotions, be they negative or positive, simply exist.  When we learn to accept our negative emotions i.e. the emotions that do not serve our good, that feed on our fears (the ultimate negative emotion), then we can learn what this emotion is telling us about ourselves.  Negative […]

Happy anniversary Sesame Street!

This week Sesame Street celebrates its 40th anniversary! WOW!  How time flies!  I have so many wonderful memories of Sesame Street.  Watching the video I must admit a little nostalgic tearing up!  Big Bird, Elmo, Ernie and Bert, Cookie Monster and so many others have brought hours of fun learning to children all over the […]

How to end your day – free and laughing!

“At the end of each day, you should play back the tapes of your performance. The results should either applaud you or prod you.” — Jim Rohn At the end of your day do you “play back the tapes of your performance” at Jim Rohn urges?  Or do you crash into bed exhausted,  admonishing yourself for all the […]

Ever made a mistake?

Mistakes are part of the experience of being human.  They are part of the learning of life and sometimes provide us with the greatest growth on our journey.  Mistakes can also be traps, keeping us stuck in the past, forever recalling and rehashing the experience. What is a mistake? The word literally means “wrong grasp” […]

“They don’t really mean it”

As I adjust to living in Canada, one of the things I am noticing is how nice people are.  They smile, they connect in brief conversations, they hold the door open for me, they say “Cute doggies” to my three princesses when we are out for a walk, and so on – lots of little […]