My dear friend Skipper is here from Honolulu. Next year we will have known each other for 40 years. Having grown up an Air Force brat, I cherish my few long-standing friendships. Skipper, who was a Navy brat, has always been in the forefront of spiritual, mind-body practices. Her latest focus is "Intention and Ease." Every action first starts with an intention, in our case, to balance. It is important to then release our attachment to the results; that's the ease. We are so certain of reaching our goal that we let go and relax. That is when our goals come rushing to meet us.

Oprah in O Magazine: "Since I began giving myself permission to eat what my body desires, instead of what my head tells me I should have, my relationship with food has become more peaceful. I might even say joyful." (based on her embracing Geneen Roth's Women Food and God).

SPIRITUAL thought/action: "Whatsoever you ask in prayer, believe that you will receive it and you will." Mark 11:24

PHYSICAL thought/action: "I declare myself ready to release myself from the quicksand of limiting thoughts, from the false pride of wanting to be perfect." BelleRuth Naparstak

MENTAL thought/action: "The blue print I hold in my mind is of me doing what I love to do without a thought." BelleRuth Naparstak

EMOTIONAL thought/action:

Surprise Ending    by Maria Veres

"I expect a tiara.

I get a one-eighth-carat diamond bought on sale,

a growly Prince Not-So-Charming who tracks mud on the carpet.

Too late I discover why those smiley-baby magazine pictures

are deliberately left unscented.

No one tells me how much kids' bikes and broken legs cost

how much everything costs, especially sleep

how many tear-sogged tissues I'll use

on the path to womanly fulfillment

how I might run away forever

if not for that one crystal morning,

all of us outside sucking perfect icicles

if not for wild blackberries behind the shed,

so many, our bucket overflows

if not for the scent of pumpkin bread

the arms circling my too-thick waist for no reason

promising I haven't flunked Happy Family 101, after all."

Intention and Ease~  Lolly

Surprise Ending

by Maria Veres

I expect a tiara.

I get a one-eighth-carat diamond bought on sale,

a growly Prince Not-So-Charming who tracks mud on the carpet.

Too late I discover why

those smiley-baby magazine pictures

are deliberately left unscented.

No one tells me how much kids' bikes and broken legs cost

how much everything costs, especially sleep

how many tear-sogged tissues I'll use

on the path to womanly fulfillment

how I might run away forever

if not for that one crystal morning,

all of us outside sucking perfect icicles

if not for wild blackberries behind the shed,

so many, our bucket overflows

if not for the scent of pumpkin bread

the arms circling my too-thick waist for no reason

promising I haven't flunked Happy Family 101, after all.