“My friend Judy died last year. She was the person I told everything to. She was my best friend, my extra sister, my true mother, sometimes even my daughter. She was all these things, and one day she called up to say, the weirdest thing has happened, there’s a lump on my tongue. Less than a year later, she was dead. She was 66 years old. She had no interest in dying, right to the end. She died horribly. And now she’s gone. I think of her …

Are you the parent or grandparent of a young girl?  On second thought, are you the parent of a young CHILD (male OR female)?  If so, I hope you got a chance to read the New York Times Magazine article written by Elizabeth Weil about what is happening to many of our young girls today.

The Incredible Shrinking Childhood – How early is too early for puberty?

Why does this affect you?  Hopefully this is not something your family is experiencing first hand.  If it is, you might find the information and research discussed in the article useful.  If nothing else, you might see that your daughter is neither alone nor abnormal – early puberty is happening more and more frequently.  And that is how it starts to affect ALL of us – and why we all need to be asking ourselves WHY?

Two factors contributing to this cause me great concern:  body mass index and exposure to environmental …

“Why can’t we get the watermelon?” my kids plead with me as we cruise the aisles in the grocery store.  Not in season, I reply, not to be persuaded.  The irony is I don’t think twice as I reach for the asparagus, setting it down gently in our cart next to the carton of strawberries and on-the-vine tomatoes.  Yeah, not in season indeed.

I grew up in a family that was conscious of growing seasons.  My mom would never buy strawberries out of season, primarily from a cost perspective:  out of season items cost more.  (They also don’t taste as good, and if you don’t agree just taste succulent summer corn on the cob or red, ripe strawberries freshly picked and so sweet they just melt in your mouth).  My mom knew what was in season and what wasn’t and shopped accordingly.

However, I also don’t think we had as many options back then.  Nowadays, in our 24-7 society, you …

What is your favorite day of the week?  Maybe Friday, with the anticipation (or relief) of the weekend approaching?  Monday perhaps, with all its promise for a new and hopefully better week ahead?  Or Saturday, with the possibility of freedom to do as you please without being ruled by an alarm clock or schedule?  Did you favor a certain day as a child?  And if so, do you find the day(s) to be the same or different day now all these years later?

“..she loved Sundays – the way they all lingered at the table, her parents telling stories of …the funny things people said and did. …on and on they went until everyone was hungry again, sandwiching bacon between leftover biscuits and drinking down the rest of the lukewarm juice for lunch.”

- from Carry Yourself Back to Me

Sundays were like that for me growing up.  There was a routine to Sundays that I came to …

If you could go back in time to one particular day and do things differently, what day would you choose to change?

A book I just read reminded me of the question my son asked me one day after school, which really had made me pause.  I was about to give him my standard answer of how I try to live my life with no regrets, but then I started thinking.  There are many things I look back on and grimace. Did I REALLY do that, say that, behave that way?  A do-over…would I take it?  Would you?

“I know what you’d say,” he told me.  He was tired of waiting as this Zen Mama Wannabe revisited memories from a long time ago.  ”You do??” Believe me, he actually had no idea, but I was curious to hear what he had come up with.

“You’d go back to the day Grandma died.  You would …

In another lifetime, I decide to go to Europe upon graduating from college.

But alas, this was not the path I chose in THIS lifetime, and although I have no regrets, …

Why do we put limits on ourselves as though there is no way we can get what we REALLY want and who do we think we are for asking for it all anyway?  Is it wrong to us to expect certain things to just work out?  After all, why shouldn’t they?

When one talks of moving to a new place, one of the first things to do is to find a place to live.  We did that – and may I mention that it truly seemed to fall into place.  A lovely house, almost completely remodeled – practically new.  It had just about everything on my list of what I wanted in a house, and certainly ALL the major points that would have been deal breakers otherwise (big yard for the kids, nice office …

Know any kids who have a tendency to say mean or unthoughtful things to their peers on occasion?  Familiar with any siblings who just HAVE to get out that zinger of a stinger, as if putting the other down builds him or her up?  If your frustration is building because of the constant verbal jabs flying around you, then you might be interested in something I stumbled upon; one simple concept (a bucket) that might just be your lifesaver!

The concept comes from the best-selling children’s book, “Have you Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids.”  Don’t let the kid part fool you – they say this book is for ages 4-9, but truly this book is for EVERYBODY.  It’s easy to understand, simple to do, and it really works!  In my current chaotic, busy life, that is music to this Zen Mama Wannabe’s ears.

The premise of the book is that we …

Does it take a tragedy like the Tucson shootings to make people start behaving better?  It’s been so discouraging recently seeing our elected officials acting like petulant children in Congress, stomping their feet (and holding news conferences) whenever they don’t get their way, and resorting to name-calling worse than any playground in America. It’s as though they don’t want to REALLY solve problems but merely stonewall their opponents.  What about coming together for the greater good?  Apparently until recently that cause was long forgotten.  But maybe, now – after the horrible tragedy in Tucson – we have an opportunity.

I came across this meditation/prayer again via Mimi Doe and her Spiritual Parenting Newsletter.  Imagine if we said it once a day for 30 days – I wonder what would happen?  I wonder how we’d feel?  I wonder if we, collectively, could help with changing the whole nasty vibe that has been infiltrating our news and media and lives far …