Category Archives: Medical

The Glory in the Challenge

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On Thursday, a very important package was delivered to my mailbox. It was a “proof copy,” the first printed and bound copy of my memoir “Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.”

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As I opened the package, this is what I was feeling – HAZY!

IMAG0997 In the same blur that has existed for several years now, while the book has been in the making. Writing and publishing a book independently, if I must be candid, takes commitment, persistence, a “can do/will do/nothing is going to stop me attitude. I had determined from the start that I would take on the words of Robert Schuller as a challenge when he asked “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” I was out to answer that and prove it to myself!

Sure, there have been challenges along the way (some big and some small) but I never lost heart in what I was doing because I believed so strongly in the story that I knew one day I’d tell. Every time I got a little disillusioned with my progress, I’d remember the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who once said “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but rising up every time we fail.”

Here it is – the proof copy. I’m excited but not done yet. Another go round of proofreading faces me.

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You’ll learn more about why I felt it was so important to tell my story when you read it. It has to do with the beautiful traits of a character in it. Although categorized as a memoir, it’s far more than a family tale. There is meaningful value in the universal messages tucked between the covers.

Today, I present to you all my glory……………and by Mothers’ Day, you can share it with me, when you read my story! You can even have it any way you like it – in print from www.Bookcrafters.com and other major on-line booksellers, in an e-book or audio book format. For those who decide on the audio book format – you are in for a very special treat!

See you tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling.com. I’m so excited! This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Life Below the Mason-Dixon Line

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I recognize the fact that there are many people across this big vast country called the United States of America who have had no exposure to southern living. In fact, for some individuals just the mention of the Mason-Dixon Line is a little bewildering. Wondering where the Mason-Dixon Line runs? Here’s a map. I grew up not terribly far from Annapolis in Baltimore.

Life below the Mason Dixon Line

One of the most interesting things of having been so far removed from my East Coast roots, over the past five years, is the opportunity I’ve had to learn something through experience (and by reading books from Western writers) about life in this part of the country. While I have been here in Colorado, it’s been especially interesting to travel to Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico where life is distinctively different than anything I have ever been immersed in before.

So, what’s it like being a southern belle? This list will give you a bit of the southern flavors of living.

Quotes about the South

From a Baltimore gal’s perspective, there’s something that is missing from this list. If you are from Maryland, you are often called “hun.”  If you are  called “hun,” when you go visiting someone in the “Land of Pleasant Living,” don’t feel insulted and turn around and go back home where you came from. Feel accepted, honored and loved, it is the term of endearment for nearly everyone.

Putting a value judgment on what kind of lifestyle is more fulfilling than another doesn’t quite seem fair.  I think it’s all about what you get used to. But I do feel strongly there is value in experiencing different ways of life, even if it is even through reading.

Tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling, do return for some valuable information about how to seek validation of your work as a quality writer.

On Monday I will be honestly opening my heart about some of the costs of  writing and publishing a book.

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Holy Experiment Day

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So live that you wouldn’t be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip. ~ Will Smith

Today is Holy Experiment Day. You don’t believe me? Look it up! http://www.giftypedia.com/Holy_Experiment_Day

As a follow-up to yesterday’s blog about family secrets and in honor of this special day, send in your family secret by posting a comment to this blog on All Things Fulfilling.

Two%20ParrotsWe really like to laugh here at www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com. – it’s good for the heart and soul. So if you have a family secret that you have kept hush-hush, now is the time to reveal it. Please do tell why revealing the secret is so personally fulfilling.  The funniest tale will win the contest.

The winner will be announced on Easter Sunday and if the author of the story agrees, it will be published on this site with full credit given to the guest blogger. The contest prize will be given out in May – a  free, personally autographed copy of my upcoming publication “Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.  Tell everyone you know to join in!

Family Secrets can be hurtful, so please read this article from Psychology Today. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200909/the-power-secrets. It will help you to reveal in good taste what you’ve kept under wraps and not damage anyone’s ego! 

No monkey business, the tale must be true, clean fun and not hurtful to others in order to win the prize. Make my day! I want to hear from you!

See you tomorrow on the space where independent thoughts, words and views are all part of the business.

Telling Family Secrets

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“I take pleasure in my transformations. I look quiet and consistent, but few know how many women there are in me.” ~ Anaïs Nin

It’s family secret day on All Things Fulfilling and I have a confession to make about one of my siblings~

I swear my little brother chose his friends according to who’d step in and clean his room for him. He is not generally known as a people user but, he always got his friends to help him out in  “clean the room department.” And he never had to do anything to correct his shortcomings because of it.

When my sister or I, or one of his friends, felt sorry for him because he was grounded once again due to his messy bedroom, we’d pitch in and help him clean up the mess. Then guess who got praised and lauded?  Yep – you guessed it, my little brother, for having fulfilled his chores list! Not the ones who helped him out of the dog house.

One day, I got caught standing in for my brother while I was cleaning up his mess. The stellar character that you will learn about in my memoir, who taught me some very useful and wonderful lessons about life, scolded me and said:

“You and yo’ brother needs ta have a come to jesus meetin’ over you always having ta do his chores. He aint doin’ doodlie squat. That ain’t right. You ain’t doin’ him no favors by helpin’ him out neither. He’s gots ta learn all by his self.”  

 I had never heard that expression “have a come to Jesus meeting” until she used it. It delighted me, made me giggle. Every time I hear the expression now, as an adult, it tickles my funny bone all over again. 

girls telling secretsPerhaps if you have brothers or sisters, you can relate to having to do their chores. Was there someone in your family who always pulled the weight?

Have you ever been caught in a difficult position by sharing a family secret?

Listen Up! Tomorrow is Holy Experiment Day. You don’t believe me? Google it! Come back tomorrow because we will announcing a contest that will give you a chance of winning a free copy of my upcoming publication, Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected. My prayer is that just the right person wins it! Don’t miss out.

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Revelations for My Mother

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“…human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”
― Gabriel Garcí¬a Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

Today is another special day in my personal and family life. Today’s blog will be very brief. It’s February 28th, the birthday of the woman who gave me life – my mother. Since thousands of miles separate us on this day, I wanted to give my mom something to celebrate on her very special birthday – something she will never forget.

So, here you go Mom, here is an image of my book cover that I have been waiting to reveal to you as a birthday gift. The official release of my book will be in May on Mothers Day but today I’m giving you a glimpse of what I have been promising is coming.

Low res front cover final

Happy Birthday, Mom. With gratitude for all you have given me through out my life.

Love you lots ~ Your eldest twin daughter, Sue

See you back here on Monday on All Things Fulfilling. Today I send out a huge thanks to Karen McLane, my cover designer from http://www.postnet.com/steamboat-springs-co105. She worked so diligently to craft a cover that exceeds my expectations for my first publication as an author from www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Memories of a Pantry

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“Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.” ~ Oscar Wilde

DSCN2113I only have one lasting image of my maternal grandmother’s pantry, she had cans of the most delicious chicken and dumpling stew I have ever tasted in my life. I have yet to find freshly made or canned chicken stew to beat it.

Yet, my paternal grandmother had quite a pantry down in her basement. She was well supplied and in the case of an emergency, she could have fed multiple families for weeks on end. My sister and I loved to “poke around” in her pantry to see what we could dig up. Some of the staples that sat on her shelves are still sold today, yet not as frequently as they used to be. The costs of them are pricey compared to in the 5o’s. http://bit.ly/1hoIyxs.

I’ll never forget my Grandmother’s talk of “putting food up.” As a kid, I wasn’t quite sure what that was but I figured it had something to do with the gross and disgusting pickled pigs feet and pickled hard boiled eggs we came across in her pantry in huge mason jars.  I thought, “Maybe putting up food meant putting those awful jars way up on the upper shelf to save for when the atomic bomb hits. Eating that gross stuff surely is enough to kill anyone on the spot. Grandmother will be saved from having to experience the horrors of the bomb, if she eats that.”  Coming across pickled pigs feet and pickled hard boiled eggs in the pantry was enough to turn any child off from eating. Eeeeewwwwww…..

My grandmother was born in 1900 and passed away in 1999. A long and fulfilling life for a woman who “never paid any never mind” to what she ate. She never checked a label and paid no regard to nutritional values – how many fats, carbos or calories were in her diet. She loved to eat, and saw to it that there was plenty on the family table. She, like others from her generation, had been through the depression and other scarce times, so she kept the pantry well stocked.

When I came across the two images I’ve posted in today’s blog, it brought a broad smile to my face because it made me think of my Grandmother, her pantry and my roots of growing up on the Mason-Dixon Line. How about you? What memories of regional foods do you have that take you back to a time to your childhood and growing up?

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See you tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling. It is going to be a very special day. Don’t miss out! This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

A Mother Letting Go

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Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future. – Daphne Rose Kingma

I clearly remember my husband and me standing and waiting for the bus with our son on his first day of school. My mother-in-law was visiting. She was part of the big send off.  Surprisingly, my son had door to door service, the school bus stopped at nearly every student’s  house since we lived in a rural area in Vermont.

I remember the excitement my son exuded as he stood waiting. There didn’t seem to be a bit of nervousness or anxiety on his part, only on mine. I was a mother letting go,  reflecting on my own first day of school standing at the bus stop with my twin sister and my mother, who was probably a lot more anxious than I was when letting go.

When I think of my first day of elementary school, I think of this image. Did anyone else from the baby boomer generation have a plaid book bag like the one pictured? Sure brings back memories, doesn’t it?

red plaid bookbag 1950s

Do you like looking back on your childhood? There is a magazine you can subscribe to that will delight you. It’s called Good Old Days “The Magazine that Remembers the Best.” Here is how to subscribe. http://www.goodolddaysmagazine.com/stories/list.html?cat_id=52

This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com. See you tomorrow and Heads Up!  On Friday there will be an important revelation on All Things Fulfilling. Don’t miss out! I can hardly wait myself!

It’s a Sunny Day!

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Today is a special day for my husband and me. It is our son’s 26th birthday. Don’t know where those years have gone since the day I delivered him, screaming and crying.

Let me clarify – I wasn’t doing the screaming and crying our son was. I was busy counting fingers and toes and marveling at perfection.

The twelve hour labor was a walk in the park compared to what I had been through the four months prior to his birth. You’ll learn more about that journey of unexpected blessings in my upcoming memoir.

When I think of  7:12 pm on Thursday, February 25, 1988,  I remember the words that came into my mind when I saw our precious bundle. They are the very same words I sang to him in the rocking chair!

you are my sunshine

The joy that our son brought has into our lives over these past 26 years is unexplainable. I can’t find the appropriate words except to say we are so very proud that he is our SUN!

Happy Birthday and much love to you on this day, Marc! Remember to take out time from your work today and have some FUN!! Hope our next visit isn’t too far off ~

being what god created him to be

And by the way – your Father and I think you are doing a fantastic job of being yourself and all that comes with it! You are indeed filled with Thursday’s child  attributes– “ruled by Jupiter, the most beneficial of all the planets, the symbol of expansion, happiness, optimism, good humour, room to move – either mentally or physically, spaciousness, freedom and independence.  This child will need these types of things.”

And so you have it! Wishing you a great year ahead.

This blog is brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com. It’s another blessed day on All Things Fulfilling. A great day of remembrance.

Balance Meant the See Saw

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The key to keeping your balance is knowing when you’ve lost it. ~ Anonymous

It was a different world when I was a kid and so were the childhood stresses and routines.  When I was growing up childhood stress was about whether or not we remembered to bring our gym uniforms home to have them washed, starched and ironed to perfection before putting them back on again. Too many demerits for forgetting affected your grade. If you are a baby boomer, you’ll  relate to that.

Life wasn’t quite as frantic for children as it is today, running from activity to activity. When the school bell rang at 3:10 pm, it was time to go play outside with neighborhood children. Only if it rained, were  you allowed to be indoors to watch an hour of TV, perhaps “Father’s Knows Best.  You knew from routine that when dad came home from work you’d hear your mother shout out “Time for Dinner.”  It was time to gather around the family table. If there was an empty chair the family felt all broken up.

With certainty, Easter meant going to church, and getting all dressed up with white gloves, shiny white or black patent leather “mary jane’s” with a little pocketbook to match. There were rituals that went with every holiday. And  you knew without a doubt that mom’s card club or bowling team met every Thursday afternoon at 1 o’clock sharp.

Back then, life was more certain and families were more intact. see saw 2When raising children in the 1950s and 1960s, there was no need to read books about the mind, body and spirit connection because in my opinion, life was already lived in accordance with more wholesome core values. Balance was what you talked about in connection with the see-saw, not in counseling sessions trying to bring harmony back to an entire family.

Here is a link to an article by Jennifer Buckett that speaks to the issue of past and present values and morals. http://bit.ly/NP5FaN. I don’t necessarily agree with every charge in this article, but overall Buckett makes some good points.

I’d like to hear from our readers. Do you agree that life was lived more in balance in the 1950s and 1960s? What are your thoughts on our societal changes? Are they for the better or worse in raising families?

Come on back tomorrow to the space where independent words, thoughts and views are all part of the business. This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Swinging Life Apart

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“One must learn to love oneself with a wholesome and healthy love so that one can bear to be with oneself ...” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

girls standing up on swing set

Last night I had a wonderful dream that I was back on the elementary school playground with my twin sister. So today in my blogging we are going to travel down nostalgia lane.

Remember those days? Pumping on the swing trying to reach the clouds high in the sky? My sister and I often competed with one another to see who could push the limits. She usually won the race because her stamina was much greater than mine.

We were both pretty fearless when it came to heights, but I may have been the greater daredevil. As soon as we crested the top, we’d let go, become air bound and jump to the ground, nearly giving my mother a double heart attack.

An advantage of being a twin is that you have a “built-in” playmate.The challenge of being a twin is that people often treat twins as if they are one unit rather than two autonomous people with individual strengths, likes and needs.

Years ago, child psychologists theorized it was best to keep twins together in the same classroom, but they have since learned not so! http://bit.ly/1lWgEdY. When seventh grade rolled around my twin and I began to learn what life was like with separate groups of friends. We were put into different classes and weaned away from one another, having to adjust to not being together constantly.

Even to this day, we have lots of mutual friends. It wasn’t until I married that we really were completely separated and life has never been the same for us since. In fact for four decades we have lived in different cultural and geographical climates.  One lives in the heat and humidity surrounded by a huge population of people, the other in artic temperatures in remote and intimate surroundings.

What we share are similar values that were instilled in both of us when we were little. You’ll learn more about my twin double troubles in my memoir, Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected. Click for info & ordering

Do come back tomorrow to All Things Fulfilling. This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.