Amending familial relationships can be hard

Life & Living, Love & Relationships
“It's not a person’s mistakes which define them - it's the way they make amends.”  ― Freya North I have cousins on my mother’s side, whom I haven’t seen in over 30 years. While some familial relationships experience such absences based on geographical location or the expansion of sub-families, mine seems to have more dramatic undertones, rather than a logical reality. Without airing out all my dirty laundry, there was a supposed “falling out” between members of the family - details of which have been the subject of speculation for years, but never fully revealed to me. I was around eight-years-old when this all occurred. And while I fully understand how turmoil inside the family can quickly divide people against each other, for me there’s still that little eight-year-old boy wondering…
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Guilt can be a useful tool in moderation

Life & Living
“When you are guilty, it is not your sins you hate but yourself.” - Anthony de Mello, One Minute Wisdom I grew up in an Italian-American family, and if there’s one thing Italians know how to do well it’s guilt each other. I try not to play that card in my personal life – having lived through enough of that drama for the majority of my life. But today my Italian heritage was shining through. I was trying to make a point – trying my best NOT to play the card hidden up my sleeve. But after much going back and forth with little to no progress, I embarrassingly played the guilt card. For a moment I felt like my mother – overdramatizing the situation in order to get the reaction…
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A person’s life is more than what you see

Life & Living
This article was first published back in 2007. I dedicate it to my grandfather, whose birthday was August 24th - he would have been 93 years old. He taught me many lessons, but perhaps the greatest being a person’s life is more than what you see. ____________________________________________________ As the night grew cold, I found myself unable to read as my body shivered - causing the book to become unstable and unreadable for that matter. I gathered a large woolen blanket from the foot of my bed and covered my frigid body -  hoping for warmth so I could continue on with my reading. Just a few days prior, we all enjoyed a record heat wave and yet tonight the temperatures were well below freezing. The grandfather clock struck midnight and…
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Do you want more out of life?

Life & Living
I’m ashamed to admit that sometimes, regardless of my personal satisfaction, I always want more out of life. I live fairly simply, but on occasion I allow myself to get caught up in the spell of society – the one which manages to convince us all that we need to spend more and buy more in order to be relevant. But inevitably something pops up and reminds me of my good fortune – today it was the article below: FRANKLIN, Ohio -- A southwest Ohio police officer has befriended a 7-year-old boy police say was trying to sell a teddy bear to buy food. Many of us are incredibly fortunate, and yet far too often we fail to acknowledge the bounties in our possession. Even when we reach the pinnacle of…
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Convenience – the luxury of time wasted

Life & Living
Convenience has been defined as, “the state of being able to proceed with something with little effort or difficulty”. We are perhaps living in the most progressive society yet. Our lives are full of advances and conveniences, which are squarely aimed at providing people with more time to do the things they never seem to have enough time to do. While a logical assumption on paper, I have yet to see how our modern day conveniences have truly afforded us more time. Convenience = Time Right? Parents these days seem to be running around in a continuous state of chaos and anxiety – a state I never remember my parents ever being in. Why has the extra time from our modern day conveniences not provided some relief? The elderly of…
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