Tonight it rained.
And my family and I didn't get wet. We were warm and dry in a wonderful home. Not everyone has that luxury - that luxury of choice of when to enjoy getting wet by the rain, and when to stay comfortable and dry. Now that's something to be grateful for.
Wishing you,
All the Best,
Theresa
The Kids' Bank Book
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
BYU Television
I'm not LDS. I do consider myself a Christian, a "recovering Catholic," and a person who reads/enjoys/applies (in addition to new & old Christian teachers) some of those contemporary writings that many label as "New Age" (e.g. Dr. Wayne Dyer, Marianne Williamson, Abraham-Hicks, Conversations with God, etc.).
And ... I love BYU Television. BYU Television has a VAST amount of wonderful, spiritual, positive teachings on parenting, marriage, families, communication, and self-growth that are unsurpassed on tv.
I run into soooo many parents on a daily basis that tell me about challenges with children. So often the first thing that comes to my mind is, "I wish you would watch the BYU tv Family Expo on __(parenting topic)___ that was on last week."
Many people don't realize that the Family Expo and Education Week talks/seminars for many years are available - for free - online.
A HUGE resource for parents - that so few people know about.
Wishing you,
All the Best,
Theresa
The Kids' Bank Book
And ... I love BYU Television. BYU Television has a VAST amount of wonderful, spiritual, positive teachings on parenting, marriage, families, communication, and self-growth that are unsurpassed on tv.
I run into soooo many parents on a daily basis that tell me about challenges with children. So often the first thing that comes to my mind is, "I wish you would watch the BYU tv Family Expo on __(parenting topic)___ that was on last week."
Many people don't realize that the Family Expo and Education Week talks/seminars for many years are available - for free - online.
A HUGE resource for parents - that so few people know about.
Wishing you,
All the Best,
Theresa
The Kids' Bank Book
Friday, May 30, 2008
Chipmunks
I am grateful for chipmunks. They play in and around my garden and backyard. They're cute, they're fast, they're amusing. I smile everytime I see one.
Wishing you,
All the Best,
Theresa
The Kids' Bank Book
Wishing you,
All the Best,
Theresa
The Kids' Bank Book
Thursday, December 20, 2007
4 things: choice, prayer, challenges & sleep
This morning, I gave thanks for the ability to choose my attitude - to choose gratitude over resentment or depression or anger or hurt.
That ability - to choose my attitude - pretty much changes the nature of the entire day, doesn't it? It changes all of the possibilities.
Victor Frankel realized this as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp & was the subject of his book, "Man's Search for Meaning," to which I was first introduced @ Providence College.
Next, I realized I was grateful for prayer. Our Country (USA) was founded on faith, and prayer, and tolerance (of even the God-less, or atheist). I believe the media, political activists, and the current social peer-pressure are promoting - and even worse, trying to create an America that is ruled by a doctrine of Atheism. Under their false banner of "tolerance," they are actively removing any reference to faith or God or The Great I Am, or The Divine ... even to the point that the US Treasury is actually printing coins without the words "Under God We Trust."
Ben Stein wrote an article re-interating that a sterile-atheist-government was never the intention of the founders of this Country. Here it is reprinted in its entirety (the bold is my doing):
[you can find the original on Ben Stein's Official Website - under "Stuff Ben Wrote - December 2005" - times have gotten even worse since he wrote it]
"Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:
I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is, either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.
Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?
I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to."
Aside from the political point about prayer, why am I grateful for it? Because it brings me peace when I would otherwise ruin everything I touch being tied in knots about things/people over which I have no control. Because I believe that prayer is a simple way to connect to God, my Divine Source. Because connecting to God, and imparting and using the wisdom and grace from that connection in this earthly world, with people, is what I believe our ultimate calling is. Because prayer "works." I'm a lawyer, and I can really get into definitions, but I can't define what I mean by "works." It's that sort of "you know when you (experience) it" sort of thing.
I am grateful for all of the life challenges that I have "turned over" to God in prayer - those things over which "I can not change" and have no control. Why am I grateful for those challenges? Because without them my ego would definitely have me believing that I don't need to pray, and really, that I don't need God either. [Hmmm, as if "need" were an issue, that's an ego thing right there. God isn't a need - connection with God just "is"]
And, I am grateful for sleep. Sleep can change everything. It washes away hurt, wounds, tiredness, cloudiness. It rejuvenates and brings new vision and new optimism. Feel stuck? Take a nap. Get a fresh perspective.
So, there it is:
1. ability to choose my attitude
2. prayer
3. challenges that lead me to prayer
4. sleep
Wishing you,
All the Best,
Theresa
The Kids' Bank Book
That ability - to choose my attitude - pretty much changes the nature of the entire day, doesn't it? It changes all of the possibilities.
Victor Frankel realized this as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp & was the subject of his book, "Man's Search for Meaning," to which I was first introduced @ Providence College.
Next, I realized I was grateful for prayer. Our Country (USA) was founded on faith, and prayer, and tolerance (of even the God-less, or atheist). I believe the media, political activists, and the current social peer-pressure are promoting - and even worse, trying to create an America that is ruled by a doctrine of Atheism. Under their false banner of "tolerance," they are actively removing any reference to faith or God or The Great I Am, or The Divine ... even to the point that the US Treasury is actually printing coins without the words "Under God We Trust."
Ben Stein wrote an article re-interating that a sterile-atheist-government was never the intention of the founders of this Country. Here it is reprinted in its entirety (the bold is my doing):
[you can find the original on Ben Stein's Official Website - under "Stuff Ben Wrote - December 2005" - times have gotten even worse since he wrote it]
"Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:
I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is, either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.
Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?
I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to."
Aside from the political point about prayer, why am I grateful for it? Because it brings me peace when I would otherwise ruin everything I touch being tied in knots about things/people over which I have no control. Because I believe that prayer is a simple way to connect to God, my Divine Source. Because connecting to God, and imparting and using the wisdom and grace from that connection in this earthly world, with people, is what I believe our ultimate calling is. Because prayer "works." I'm a lawyer, and I can really get into definitions, but I can't define what I mean by "works." It's that sort of "you know when you (experience) it" sort of thing.
I am grateful for all of the life challenges that I have "turned over" to God in prayer - those things over which "I can not change" and have no control. Why am I grateful for those challenges? Because without them my ego would definitely have me believing that I don't need to pray, and really, that I don't need God either. [Hmmm, as if "need" were an issue, that's an ego thing right there. God isn't a need - connection with God just "is"]
And, I am grateful for sleep. Sleep can change everything. It washes away hurt, wounds, tiredness, cloudiness. It rejuvenates and brings new vision and new optimism. Feel stuck? Take a nap. Get a fresh perspective.
So, there it is:
1. ability to choose my attitude
2. prayer
3. challenges that lead me to prayer
4. sleep
Wishing you,
All the Best,
Theresa
The Kids' Bank Book
Friday, May 18, 2007
28 people, places and things & 1 divine
1. my loving husband
2. my terrific daughter
3. my wonderful step-daughter
4. my awesome wicked-cool brother
5. my splendiferous (ok, it's not a word, but it should be) sister
6. all of my many aunts and uncles - who have all shown me love, kindness and support along the way
7. my step-father and his whole family
8. my grandparents
9. my extended family
10. my in-laws
11. my clients
12. my colleagues
13. my professional adversaries (I'm an attorney)
14. my neighbors - we actually know each other on a first name basis and chat the most with each other on snowy days while shoveling snow (and making snow angels, aha . . . )
15. snow angels
16. sledding
17. hot chocolate
18. Blizzard of '78 (was was 12, in about 8th grade, no DVD or VHS, no satelite dish or cable, no computers, no internet, JUST fireplaces, Monopoly, and friends - oh, yeah, and my father walking home from work for miles after being stranded in Providence RI in the blizzard)
19. I'm grateful for being raised on extra layers of clothing - even if I don't have the state of the art mosture-wicking lycra blend, I know how to stay warm in New England winters!
20. great friends
21. math puzzles and logic problems (yes, I am a math nerd)
22. the Dictionary (which I used to read at lunch)
23. Supercalifragilistic - the word, for providing hours of entertainment while my sister and I used to try to make as many words as possible out of its letters
24. my awesome public school teachers (Canton, Cranston, Scottsdale, Swansea)
25. my awesome college & law school professors (Providence College, SUNY Purchase, Fordham School of Law)
26. my husband's friends - they make life wonderful and interesting
27. my therapist
28. my personal trainer
29. God
Wishing you,
All the Best,
Theresa
The Kids' Bank Book
2. my terrific daughter
3. my wonderful step-daughter
4. my awesome wicked-cool brother
5. my splendiferous (ok, it's not a word, but it should be) sister
6. all of my many aunts and uncles - who have all shown me love, kindness and support along the way
7. my step-father and his whole family
8. my grandparents
9. my extended family
10. my in-laws
11. my clients
12. my colleagues
13. my professional adversaries (I'm an attorney)
14. my neighbors - we actually know each other on a first name basis and chat the most with each other on snowy days while shoveling snow (and making snow angels, aha . . . )
15. snow angels
16. sledding
17. hot chocolate
18. Blizzard of '78 (was was 12, in about 8th grade, no DVD or VHS, no satelite dish or cable, no computers, no internet, JUST fireplaces, Monopoly, and friends - oh, yeah, and my father walking home from work for miles after being stranded in Providence RI in the blizzard)
19. I'm grateful for being raised on extra layers of clothing - even if I don't have the state of the art mosture-wicking lycra blend, I know how to stay warm in New England winters!
20. great friends
21. math puzzles and logic problems (yes, I am a math nerd)
22. the Dictionary (which I used to read at lunch)
23. Supercalifragilistic - the word, for providing hours of entertainment while my sister and I used to try to make as many words as possible out of its letters
24. my awesome public school teachers (Canton, Cranston, Scottsdale, Swansea)
25. my awesome college & law school professors (Providence College, SUNY Purchase, Fordham School of Law)
26. my husband's friends - they make life wonderful and interesting
27. my therapist
28. my personal trainer
29. God
Wishing you,
All the Best,
Theresa
The Kids' Bank Book
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
thanks of freedom (+20)
[Hmmm, wonder what happened over-night? These are much heavier - and equally awesome!]
I am thankful for:
1. Every pilgrim who knew the risks, but made the journey anyway into the unknown
2. Ben Franklin
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. Alexander Hamilton
5. James Madison
6. Every signer of the Declaration of Independence, who knew that they were signing their death warrant, but signed it - and backed it up with their deeds, fortunes, and lives
7. George Washington
8. Abraham Lincolm (who could have quit in the face of apparantly obvious odds against his political career, at any point along the way, but persisted, so that the Divine could use him as the leader of a great decision and movement)
9. Every soldier that fought in the Civil War (and whose heart was broken by the War itself, regardless of the outcome)
10. Every soldier that was part of the Allied Invasion of France on D-Day June 6, 1944, who fought against every odd, and because of whom the tide began to turn against the Axis powers, and to whom every Concentration Camp survivor owes/owed his/her live(s)
11. Especially Rene O. Hebert, my great uncle, who my grandfather, from whose death-in-action about one week after landing on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, my grandfather (his only brother) never quite recovered
12. The Holocaust survivor who visited my 6th grade class about 30 years ago, who told us his story and showed us the tatoo-ed Concentration Camp number on his arm - so that 30 years later when groups would attempt to convince the world that the Holocaust didn't really happen, 25 of us could easily and quickly dismiss their lies
13. For every American who fought in Vietnam - whether their heart was in it or not
14. For my father, who did fight in Vietnam - and who God spared, for which I am eternally grateful
15. For every soldier fighting in the post-9/11 wars
16. For every American citizen, including Boy Scouts and Girl Scounts who will place tokens of remembrance on the graves of our Veterans for Memorial Day
17. For every American citizen who will take a moment of silence out of their pool parties at 3:00 p.m. on Memorial Day to remember our fallen veterans
18. For Francis Scott Key, who witnessed the battle (of a forgotten war), not knowing through the night whether he would still be a free man in the morning, and was inspired to write what is now our Nation's Anthem
19. For Irving Berlin, who 100+ years, set a glorious prayer to song, which instantly set upon the lips of a grateful Nation (God Bless America)
20. For every person who watches a ball game and stands and gets choked up at the singing of the National Anthem and God Bless America
Wishing you,
All the Best,
Theresa
The Kids' Bank Book
I am thankful for:
1. Every pilgrim who knew the risks, but made the journey anyway into the unknown
2. Ben Franklin
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. Alexander Hamilton
5. James Madison
6. Every signer of the Declaration of Independence, who knew that they were signing their death warrant, but signed it - and backed it up with their deeds, fortunes, and lives
7. George Washington
8. Abraham Lincolm (who could have quit in the face of apparantly obvious odds against his political career, at any point along the way, but persisted, so that the Divine could use him as the leader of a great decision and movement)
9. Every soldier that fought in the Civil War (and whose heart was broken by the War itself, regardless of the outcome)
10. Every soldier that was part of the Allied Invasion of France on D-Day June 6, 1944, who fought against every odd, and because of whom the tide began to turn against the Axis powers, and to whom every Concentration Camp survivor owes/owed his/her live(s)
11. Especially Rene O. Hebert, my great uncle, who my grandfather, from whose death-in-action about one week after landing on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, my grandfather (his only brother) never quite recovered
12. The Holocaust survivor who visited my 6th grade class about 30 years ago, who told us his story and showed us the tatoo-ed Concentration Camp number on his arm - so that 30 years later when groups would attempt to convince the world that the Holocaust didn't really happen, 25 of us could easily and quickly dismiss their lies
13. For every American who fought in Vietnam - whether their heart was in it or not
14. For my father, who did fight in Vietnam - and who God spared, for which I am eternally grateful
15. For every soldier fighting in the post-9/11 wars
16. For every American citizen, including Boy Scouts and Girl Scounts who will place tokens of remembrance on the graves of our Veterans for Memorial Day
17. For every American citizen who will take a moment of silence out of their pool parties at 3:00 p.m. on Memorial Day to remember our fallen veterans
18. For Francis Scott Key, who witnessed the battle (of a forgotten war), not knowing through the night whether he would still be a free man in the morning, and was inspired to write what is now our Nation's Anthem
19. For Irving Berlin, who 100+ years, set a glorious prayer to song, which instantly set upon the lips of a grateful Nation (God Bless America)
20. For every person who watches a ball game and stands and gets choked up at the singing of the National Anthem and God Bless America
Wishing you,
All the Best,
Theresa
The Kids' Bank Book
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
10 things I am thankful for
1. sunshine
2. rain
3. spring flowers
4. my daughter's drawings of a happy home and family
5. butterflies
6. homemade rolled, cutout, decorated sugar cookies
7. America's freedom
8. love
9. my Mom
10. my Dad
Go ahead, add a few - it'll bring a smile to your face! Wishing you,
All the Best,
Theresa
The Kids' Bank Book
2. rain
3. spring flowers
4. my daughter's drawings of a happy home and family
5. butterflies
6. homemade rolled, cutout, decorated sugar cookies
7. America's freedom
8. love
9. my Mom
10. my Dad
Go ahead, add a few - it'll bring a smile to your face! Wishing you,
All the Best,
Theresa
The Kids' Bank Book
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