Life is such

We got to spend the weekend at my friend Arlene's house in Ashtabula.
She lives right on Lake Erie.....such a beautiful friend and such a relaxing weekend. Thank you Arlene!!!
Namaste,
Michele




People don't talk about the soul very much anymore.
It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit.
But a resume is cold comfort on a winter's night, or when you're sad,
or broke, or lonely, or when you've received your test results
and they're not so good.
Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children.
I have tried never to let my work stand in the way
of being a good parent.
I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe.
I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband.
I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say.
I am a good friend to my friends and them to me.
Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today,
because I would be a cardboard cut out.
But I call them on the phone and I meet them for lunch.
I would be rotten, at best mediocre, at my job
if those other things were not true.
You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are.
So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life.
A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion,
the bigger pay cheque, the larger house.
Do you think you'd care so very much about those things
if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon
or found a lump in your breast?
Get a life in which you notice the smell
of salt water pushing itself on a breeze at the seaside,
a life in which you stop and watch
how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water,
or the way a baby scowls with concentration
when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first finger.
-Ann Quindlen