Great Life Gifts

For the month of April try a new activity in developing your mindfulness skills and turn your cell phone off when you are driving--especially if you find yourself automatically reaching for it every time it beeps or rings. We love you here at Great Life Gifts and we think it's better to be alive and popular rather than a popular memory.  How many of you will take the pledge with me? Provided by The National Safety Council

Of the millions of tweets this weeks, this one is the most compelling: Here are 10 things you didn't know about loading the dishwasher http://t.co/GWpFiaCuQ9 — Martha Stewart (@MarthaStewart) March 17, 2014

Nearly everyday I sit with people who cry. Some crying comes in the form of shaking-hug-yourself sobs and other comes in the form of watering eyes with Adam's apples the size of tennis balls to hold in the wails. And sometimes the cry brings itself out through clenched fists and a knee bouncing up and down from the impatience felt towards an emotion which reveals an individual's vulnerability to being a part of the human race. All the tears I've seen shed, so far, could fill a small ocean. And the tears come from all shapes and sizes of people--from petite, pink lipped school teachers to burly brown tattooed thieves and drug addicts. And every single tear is considered as valuable to me as the small droplets of diamonds that they look like.  So we catch these translucent diamonds with a feather delicate tissue paper and we keep catching them until the tissue is so full that the tears drip from it.  And then the tears stop.  Just like that.  No magic is co...

Shrove Tuesday is Here! In traditional Protestant and Catholic traditions, Shrove Tuesday is the celebration before the beginning of the Lenten season when people repent for bad habits and attitudes in preparation for Easter.  Many local churches will be hosting pancake suppers in honor of this tradition. If you love pancakes and do not have a church mindset, you can still celebrate and make a contribution to a worthy cause at your local IHOP this morning. 

I work two jobs, but my husband makes more than me. He has always made more than me.  One of the reasons I married him (in addition to the grand love I have for him) is I knew he would provide for our family. Does that sound traditional? Maybe it is. Before I married him, I dated an attorney. But he wasn't a litigation attorney; he was one of those work-for-legal-aid-type attorneys. That was admirable. But that was the type of non-profit work I do and I knew it wouldn't provide for a family. And for me it's important that I am in a family that provides for the family. While I didn't marry the work for legal aid- attorney I've wanted to be the kind of family he came from. His family sent their children to boarding school, France, and prestigious private colleges. And in doing so he had the choice to become a  work-for-legal-aid-type attorney . My family wasn't like that. My family sent me to my grandparents in the summer and public school in the winter. On ...

When God wanted to take a break from the stress of creating the universe, He took out his paintbrush and doodled in the sand, the stars, and the flowers. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/35606653277915835/ At the end of the work day, you could take a clue from your Creator and get out your marking pens and sit in silence while you color a Mandala. In its literal Sanskrit translation, a mandala symbolizes the container of sacred essence we all are. You can see this mandala theme reflected in the human physiology in the design of your eyes or the uniqueness of your fingerprint. Over the course of civilization, nearly every culture has revealed a reverence for a symbol of sacredness through religious or spiritual structures such as the grand cathedrals of Christianity to the mosques and synagogues of Muslim and Jewish traditions. In less ostentatious ways but no less meaningful are the medicine wheel and dream catchers of Native Americans or the Celtic Cross. As a tool of meditation,...

Editor's note: this is an essay I wrote about an incident I experienced when I worked in Adult Basic Education a few years ago. People need loving the most when they deserve it the least.  John Harrigan Paul and Rick fought on the Tuesday before winter break and again on the Wednesday that classes resumed. The first argument was over the cigarette butts. Paul flicked the last of his cigarette on the ground even though a black metal canister was right beside him. Rick, the building’s maintenance man, walked by just as the butt landed on the ground. In a polite way for Rick, but a rude way to Paul, Rick barked that Paul should use the ashtray. Paul shouted where Rick could put the ash tray. The second argument continued the first over the disposal method of cigarettes but was also fueled by Paul’s inattentiveness to clean spaces. Rick had just mopped the floor and Paul walked through it, rather than around. As the full-time maintenance man, Rick walks a tight rope of sel...