Gratitude

Last week my yoga instructor's class focused on gratitude. Practicing gratitude is more than just reciting a list of what you're grateful for. It is a way of approaching life.
We are such a goal-oriented society. Sometimes we are so busy striving for what we don't have that we forget all that we do have.
So when you feel bombarded by the media message of "buy, buy, buy," this season, take a moment to reflect on your bounty of blessings.

Despite what I said earlier about gratitude being more than a list, here are some things that make me grateful:
Family and friends
The russet gold of New England November
My ongoing assignments with the American Notable Women Series. (I just got my list of Illinois ladies.)
Early morning walks with my golden retriever, Willow, even when it's raining.
And my wonderful yoga teacher--Ellen Schaeffer www.youphoria.biz/

Heaven to Betsey!

I recently returned from a Florida trip. I had picked up a couple of paperbacks to read on the plane. I was drawn to one by its quaint cover and Anna Quinlen's plug--"There are three authors whose body of work I have reread more than once over my adult life: Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Maud Hart Lovelace."
So I was surprised to discover that this title was actually a children's book--the high school (two books in one) sequels to the Betsy-Tacy series, HEAVEN TO BETSY and BETSY IN SPITE OF HERSELF.
The books were very quiet. I'm not sure they'd be published today. Betsy's small problems were readily solved. Yet I was totally caught up in her character by the end of the books, enough so that I ordered the first title in the series from my library. I'm not sure what made Betsy so captivating, but I mean to find out!