by Carol | Jun 13, 2019
FALL UPDATE! Summer is really over–already! and you’ve probably got an entire list of things to do–especially if you’ve got kids. So maybe we can help make it a bit easier with our one-stop-shopping guide:
SPECIAL BIRTHDAYS AND EVENTS
Some special and affordable gifts:
If someone you adore is having a birthday or just needs their spirits boosted: consider “You’re My Person” candles–you can now add that cute pendant to any of our candles for just $5. For a maid of honor?? Sister? BFF? Cute cute cute!
OR add the cute metal Happy Birthday Cake & Candles Pendant–which is larger– to any gift for $6. Thread it through the ribbon for your gift wrap for an adorable look. It’s also a fun stand-alone gift when you just want “a little something!”
Find all the pendants under the gift tab.
If you’d like your kitchen to smell sugar-lemon fresh this fall/winter, try one of our limited edition Lemon Drop Kitchen Candles. The lemony-sweet fragrance and pretty flower petals make it a super gift at super pricing: introductory price for the 4 oz. Lemon Drop Kitchen Candle is $11 per candle (four for only $40!), and customers say they burn for a very long time. I do love these.
Summer Cocktail Candles would be a lovely reminder of summer—-in yummy fragrances like Pina Colada, Sparkling Sangria, Pink Lemonade or Tropical Coconut Mango and in 10 oz. frosted glass containers of pink, blue, yellow and green. How about a bridesmaid gift?
People who receive them respond, “They’re gorgeous!”
TOUGH TIMES
It’s always tough to be sick. Or to be grieving. How well I know this. Our gentle, supportive gift packages for healing and/or grief start at $19.99.
Or buy just the helpful affirmation decks for only $14.95 or the guided journals for $15.95. Check the tabs Healing Toolkit or Grief for details or to see more.
by Carol | Jun 9, 2019
Today I’m bringing you my edition of our weekly Baby Boomer roundup from my blog at A Healing Spirit. To my own readers here, this is a weekly compilation of blog posts by active Baby Boomers busy living life. I think you’ll find a nugget or two of useful info!
So…
Summer Boomer style looks like any other season–with thoughts and activities both practical and deep.. So let’s start:
Here’s something: I have been here and just can’t pull the trigger: Rebecca Olkowski with BabyBoomster.com is struggling with whether she should bite the bullet and go for silver hair. It’s becoming a trend with young women but not all of us older women are ready for it. Her dyed hair is sprouting gray and she’s wondering if it’s worth the effort to maintain it. Here’s her story.
Tom Sightings had to go two thousand miles from home to get some advice about money. But his post
Do You Argue About Money? offers an approach that extends well beyond money issues and could be helpful for any kind of communication with a friend or loved one.
Speaking of money, On The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide, Rita R. Robison, consumer journalist, writes about the hidden fees that most Americans pay regularly. They include bank overdraft fees, resort fees, add-on fees for online purchases, baggage fees, reservation fees, and many more. See Robison’s article “
Do You Pay Hidden Fees?” for details.Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting spent the past week in the great outdoors, on blue waters sailing along the coast of Maine and enjoying gourmet cuisine. Poor internet connection prevented an on-going tale of her adventure, but when once again on land she summarized her six-day adventure on the
windjammer Angelique here.What do you see when you look at a hole in the ground? Jennifer, at Unfold and Begin, feels that how you see a problem reflects your creativity. But there’s hope. In her current post, Jennifer shares how you can rebuild your creative muscles through different practices.
And today I remind myself and readers that friendships, like gardens, must be tended to, and I suggest some ways to do that in How to Cultivate Your Friendship Garden.
Have a beautiful week, everyone!
by Carol | May 15, 2019
Someone asked a question about grief and loss at a recent Krishna Das workshop, and this was his response.
So many of us say these words. But do we really believe it at a gut level?
Do we “get” that we are eternal souls that do not die? And that our grief is actually for the shell that encases the soul, and that the soul does go on?
How many of us have had experiences with those who have left their bodies? Signs and communications?
And yet, most of us must still be reminded that nobody dies. Not really.
Today would be a good day to really take that in. Meditate on it. Feel it.
And believe it. Because we don’t die.
by Carol | Apr 11, 2019
Grief is a universal. We all must travel the path one day and sometimes it can hit so hard we can barely breathe. I know this from personal experience and I also know that there are some good resources available today. Here are 10 of them.. 
There is no better workbook for processing grief than A Guided Journal through Grief, found here. It’s not only my opinion but the feedback I get from those who use it. Every page holds a prompt or simple activity to help work through the thoughts and feelings that accompany loss. Because sometimes we can’t talk about it. Or think loved ones are tired of hearing it.
But sometimes, you do want to read how others have managed their way through this universal process. Or get some expert advice.
Here’s a reading list of books that can be helpful. I suggest you read a bit about the book and what other readers have to say before you buy them.
This classic by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross is still so relevant and her work on grief is still the most significant:
The wisdom of Ram Dass is always comforting. Few know he worked with the dying for many years. His new book with Mirabai Bush is so helpful to those who grieve and also those contemplating their own mortality.
About a son’s suicide. The Silence of Mornings. By Daisy Hickman
Joan Didion’s book about her loss is gut-wrenching and not for the faint of heart. I think she’s one of the best writers of our era and she brings that talent to bear on her grief.
It’s Okay That You’re Not Okay validates our grief. Because sometimes people want us to get over it sooner than we can.
Another classic: C. S. Lewis’ A Grief Observed
Final Gifts is about patients at the end of life. I think it’s beautiful, compassionate and practical.
The End is just the Beginning by Arlene Churn is geared toward the grief of African Americans, and historical rituals and customs that can help.
The death of a parent is a rite of passage, almost. Who are we if we are not someone’s child? These essays and stories can help. The Late Orphan Project by Anne Born
And finally, for a daily comforting meditation on grief, I offer a deck of 50 compact Transforming and Releasing Grief Cards, to help focus your thoughts in supportive ways. Find them in beautiful hard copy here. They are also available as an online subscription delivered daily to your email address. See those here.
Also you can find my gentle condolence gift packages here.
*This post contains affiliate links.
by Carol | Apr 9, 2019
The brilliant Ram Dass hits home with this. People talk about “living in the moment” but what gets lost is that much of the sadness and grief we feel is because we’re not living in this moment. We’re living in the past — or in what might happen.
As with most of Ram Dass’ sage writing, the depths are uncovered by pondering it. Meditating on it. How does this apply in your life?
So the thought for today is that there is only this moment. That’s all. So don’t waste time in the past or with “what if” imaginings.
Live in the here and now. This moment.
Only this moment.
by Carol | Mar 26, 2019
Sometimes the hardest goodbye
opens the door to the sweetest hello.
“I‘ve got to close some doors before I can be open to something new,” a sage friend said to me last week.
She’s right. And so I’ll just let the idea sit right here so we can think about how that might have applied in our life or is applying now.
And if you are inclined, tell us about it in the comments.
