It is such a beautiful Fall day here. The leaves are turning, the weather is lovely, the apples are in and fabulous, and we have many blessings.

On the other side, mass murder in Las Vegas and, terror in New York, and a country so divided that some are not able to even come together for our National Anthem.

Did you see the police officers singing the Anthem at the World Series? I did and the crowd went wild and everyone stood.

There must be some things for which we can ALL stand????

Love, Judith

New PINK articles have been posted and new Fall soup recipes are coming shortly. Do you have a good soup recipe-Want to share???  Love, Judith

Today is seems difficult to know what to write. It is nearly impossible to put one’s feelings into words as thoughts race against one another.

Our church is donating to a Huston relief fund one minute and trying to help with Florida the next.

I have been on the islands of Barbuda.and Antigua. I have also sailed around St Martin and many of the other small Caribbean islands hit by Irma. It breaks my heart to think of what they must look like and how long it will take to return the situation to normal. Many of these places are poor at best and to repair such massive desolation will be a monumental task. I have been on Mission on Haiti and I cannot even imagine what has happened there.

North Korea has the whole world in a state of “waiting for the worst” and who knows what will happen with a madman at the helm of this rogue nation.

I am praying for some sort of way to make some sense of it all and interestingly enough, I found some hope today. My little grandson, aged three, woke up from his nap, gave me a hug, and told me he loved me. Please share your moments of joy. I think we all need it. Judith

I have had so many opinions and comments on mental health that  are relevant and correct that I am thinking that at last people are getting it! One’s emotional and mental well being is the foundational and there is no getting around it. One of the most well known facts regarding mental health is the way it becomes part of your interactions with others around you. That was the original purpose of these comments. A writer commented on the effects of a person suffering from untreated clinical depression and the devastation it had brought to her family.

That is what kicked off this whole discussion and the resolution I think is that it is proper and correct within bounds to try to help. I know that seems to go without saying, but it is necessary to be so very careful. Hurt feelings, destroyed friendships and relationships and worse can result.  Professional help is always the recommendation and the hoped for outcome. Thanks to all who participated in this discussion.

We have discussed many times that living a healthy lifestyle has many parts and components. Often we think of health as food intake, weight, exercise and fresh air. In actual fact good health is much more than that. I remember when a healthy diet was fried eggs and bacon for breakfast, a grilled cheese sandwich oozing with butter and potato chips for lunch and beef with mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner. We know better that that now, of course. Physical health is a huge topic for discussion often until we are literally “sick of it!”

See PINK MAGAZINE page 69 in the June issue for more of a discussion about that. Total health also includes the often neglected topic of mental health. This is not just “How do you feel?” is is a much deeper topic than that.

I will share comments on this topic through the week. What do you have to say?

You know, Donald Trump has been saying many things of late, but the thing that made the

most sense to me was his call to come together. Wouldn’t it be something if we could look to a

common goal, put the petty things aside, and just get on with it???

Boy, these people who keep on saying that we need to make every day count must have never have had a really BAD day. It is unrealistic to say that every single day of your genuine life is going to contain something of vast importance. Rather can we say that we will do the best we can on a regular basis. I know that “Do The Best You Can On A Regular Basis” is not quite as catchy  as “Make Every Day Count” but doesn’t it really better describe how we live?? ?

I’m Just Saying….

We just returned from a lovely concert in a local church. There were 70 members in concert choir and they sang everything from the Beatles, Gospel, and Pop to patriotic songs. Just as an aside, when they sang God Bless America, everyone in the church stood.

Anyway, the point of telling you this is to tell you the reason this group was formed in 2009. They all belonged to choirs that did not sing in the summer. They got together, small at first, and grew to the 70 members and now perform 8 concerts every summer and are called-you guessed it-the Summer Singers. They sing for fun and missed the fun of singing. Now that is what I call fabulous!

I had a lovely comment from a reader thanking me for my post regarding looking forward not backward and I would like to add to that the fact that dwelling in the past is something we all do and also it is a natural reaction and emotion. I think there is a huge difference between thinking about the past as it may help one improve their present situation, and reliving bad and unproductive events from old and unchangeable times.

I like to think I practice what I preach so I do feel free to put this out there. We can change the present and the future but not the past.  My dear friend Nancy Jamello who is an awesome yoga teacher is fond of quoting that old saying, “ The past is gone, the future is unknown. Now is a gift, that is why we call it the present.”  Think about it!

Getting old means hiring someone sometimes to do things you used to do yourself. I have hired someone to do some yard  work and stonework in our front yard. I have hired someone to sand a deck in the back of my house. I have hired someone to change the oil in my car. I used to do ALL of these things myself. Boy, I am glad I am not doing them now and the people I hired are very glad for the work. Getting old has some huge advantages.  Judith