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I’m stating the obvious, but I’ll just put it out there. Women can be incredibly strong… even young women. As Ernest Hemingway famously said, “The world breaks us all, and afterwards some are stronger in the broken places.” This is...

Every Thanksgiving our family gathers for the feast. We typically cook for days and share our favorite dishes in a kind of “pot-luck” composite that invariably yields plenty of left-overs for the long weekend. By now we’ve learned so many...

Vote! This is the word of the day, and all by itself it inspires a world of feelings, hopes and dreams for our nation. This one-word-shout-out is a clarion call that resonated for many of us; the latest records confirm...

What happened at the gun show in Massachusetts is precisely why guns and kids should be kept apart. Guns kill - that is their purpose. The tragic death of an 8-year-old boy who, while under supervision by a certified instructor...

Are your children learning life skills at school? If not, time to wise up and integrate those lessons into your home life, because many kids are graduating from high school without a clue about how to function out there in...

My kids are starting to get a little nervous when we discuss politics. In fact, they prefer we don’t. It’s not that they don’t care — they do. Three of our four kids can vote, and the fourth knows whom...

I love it, and sometimes I loathe it, but never do I forget how blessed I am to be part of it. This highly emotional relationship is, of course, the democratic process of electing our public officials. Making the decision...

Okay, I barely had a chance to collect my thoughts regarding Barack Obama’s speech last night when I learned Senator McCain has selected and announced his running mate: Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. Wow. The McCain camp didn’t waste a...

She was a vision in Orange. A bright star, radiant and strong, committed and determined and rightfully proud of the part she has played - not only during these past couple of years, but throughout her life, as an advocate...

As they say, time flies when you’re having fun. But before you can say PB & J, it’ll be time to get the kids geared up and ready for school again. Part of that readiness should include mental and physical...

Ever hear the phrase, barefoot and pregnant? Clearly it wasn’t spawned from current pop culture. Though this artifact of generations past was probably meant to be endearing, the subtext behind it seems to have more to do with territory and...

Just as I’ve accepted the reality that change is something you can count on in life, I have come to understand that there is at least one other sure-thing; that life will continually dish up lessons for us to learn....

Do you wake up every day feeling sure of yourself? Though you may have confusion about which daily task you’re going to tackle when you rise, is your sense of validity, self-worth, and right to an equitable existence in question...

The Fourth of July celebration for our clan has typically been a family event. We’re used to gathering together for a restorative day of playfulness to reconnect with each other, and somewhere hidden amongst the bar-b-que sauce, beach balls and...

Well, there we were, in the very last row, trying to get a glimpse of our daughter, a graduate, who, as Murphy’s Law would have it, was also in the very last row. A close-up photo was out of the...

It’s Mother’s Day — a day that stands out from the 364 others because in this twenty-four hour period, we’re supposed to intentionally think about our moms and honor them. In the United States, this day brings a significant economic...

It’s been proven that women who are provided with basic resources can make the difference between a family rising above poverty, or being trapped by it. This fact was perfectly illustrated by Dr. Mohamad Yunus and his Grameen bank, but...

I was raped when I was 18. It was an event in my life that continues to mark the passage of time for me; time that is divided into two sections - before the rape, and after. It was the...

The smell of freshly mown grass is like a ticket to a time machine. Every Wednesday, when the gardeners mow the lawn, I enjoy a trip to my childhood that leaves me with a satisfied grin on my face. The...

Is this election about substantive political philosophy, track record and proof of ability, or is it about entertainment and personality? I want to know answers. It’s getting tedious watching and reading about thinly-veiled put-downs and what has become a continuous...