10 Christmas Confessions 2011

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#1. I’m Jewish. So actually I have no business writing about Christmas.  Or confessions. #2. I grew up in a kosher home. We also hung stockings and got presents Christmas morning. #3. My husband is Christian.   But  he claims he doesn’t mind that we don’t have a Christmas tree. #4. I always yearned for a Christmas [...]

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How Heidi Klum can improve the health care system

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…Because you might not realize that fashion can be bad for your health. Seriously.  (Disclaimer:  I have no stats or scientific studies to prove this.  Just read this post and decide for yourself. ) The thing is, we’re living in a time of incredible progress; when the world changes in nano seconds. In hospitals, where [...]

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Real and unreal

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It’s a scene we’ve all seen so many times—in movies; on the news. Whether or not you’ve ever walked the fields and pathways,  the setting is familiar—- its traditions and history deeply woven into the fabric of the nation.  Surrounded by trees now tinged with fall colors, more than 300,000 stone markers stretch in every [...]

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Never forget—or forgive?

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Mostly  I’ve avoided the coverage of the 10 year anniversary—consciously and subconsciously.  I had a personal connection that I’ve written about on this day in past years, but somehow this year I almost can’t bear to write—or read another word—a feeling expressed  in the brave and beautiful words of a 9/11 widow. Yet in the weeks leading [...]

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School daze magenta haze

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The calendar officially begins in January,  but somehow it really feels like the year officially begins when school starts. That used to mean Labor Day.  When the words ”summer break” made sense. Before the school year started creeping backwards—at some places, starting in the middle of summer and ending in the middle of spring. I’m not [...]

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care and comfort

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They play a role in our lives from birth to death.  Usually they’re the first to hold you in their arms when you’re born— and they might be there at your side when you die. And in between, at times when you’re most in need of help, no relationship can be more important– or more [...]

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When bad things make better people

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Hurricanes blow me away. It’s an awesome spectacle seeing nature unleashed in such a Big way—a storm the size of Europe.  As I write this I’m glued to CNN watching Hurricane Irene about to arrive in the Big Apple. By the time you read this, we’ll already have witnesssed whatever happens on video—-(unless you have [...]

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A Defense of Disconnection

panetta obama

I used to brush my teeth first.  But these days,  the first thing I do after I get up in the morning is to check in; to connect electronically to the world outside my bedroom. Yesterday was different.   I always start  Sundays reading the New York Times.  The paper version.  And then I connect. But [...]

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a military love story

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I can’t  credit myself for matchmaking– but I consider myself part of their story since I was the only witness present at the moment they met. The romance started in my kitchen.  My daughter had a small gathering at our house; by now everyone had left and moved on.  Only one person lingered behind— one [...]

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Modern Love letters

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Thank you to Yahoo! Mail for sponsoring this post about staying connected. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do. We’re opposites in almost every way. But after 17 years of marriage, there are ways V and I have influenced each other to change.  [...]

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