Tag: Life & Tradition

Make the Most of Personal Time After Workday Hours

It takes practice to transition from your workday into your personal time. Work worries will spoil your time at home unless you take charge. According to a survey by Advise America, 87 percent of respondents feel overwhelmed, and only 42.1 percent report that they have a good balance between work and life. It may not…


5 Ways to Be More Thankful

As the calendar turns to the year’s penultimate month, all eyes are on the upcoming holidays. Thanksgiving is up next, full of hearty meals, parade floats, and American football games. This is an exciting time for everyone, and it’s a season we all look forward to. Thanksgiving is all about being thankful for what you…


Dear Next Generation: Our Conscience, Not Emotions, Should Guide Us on This Earthly Journey

Dear Next Generation: My experience has taught me that living by the principles of truth and justice is essential to leading a fulfilling life. Today’s culture tries to persuade us that feelings should become the principal influence in our decision-making. Yet it is self-discipline and sacrifice that compel us to achieve the selfless goals that…


Book Review: ‘The Viking Heart: How Scandinavians Conquered the World”

The Vikings were a warring people steeped in mythology and legend stemming from the very wars and battles they fought. Known for their brutal savagery from factual and fictionalized retellings, the Viking rule remains one of the most captivating eras of world history. In Arthur Herman’s new book, “The Viking Heart: How Scandinavians Conquered the…


Pushing the Pause Button on Profanity

While out on an evening walk in a local park, I heard a fellow walker coming down the path behind me, talking on his phone. His tone was even-keeled and calm … but it seemed like every fifth word was an expletive, uttered in the same calm manner. I cite this incident not because it’s…


From a Reader: ‘One Thanksgiving at a Time’

April 1989: I was 48 years old. On the surface, I was doing quite well. But underneath the façade of my many successful family, professional, and community accomplishments was a life in turmoil. I was so empty. No matter what I had accomplished, I was always on to the next project. I suffered from the…


Don’t Let Anyone Steal Your Gratitude

Ingratitude has somehow become vogue in the United States. It seems that the more we progress in technology, science, entertainment options, food and clothing accessibility, self-managing appliances, and a laundry list of other blessings, the more opportunities there are to complain rather than be thankful. Even the middle-class and some lower-class individuals and families in…


Root and Branch: The Joys and Labors of Genealogy

Norman Rockwell’s 1959 painting “Family Tree” offers viewers an entertaining and instructive look at ancestry and pedigree. A pirate who weds a Spanish beauty, a Confederate and a Union soldier, a Native American woman, a mountain man and cowboy, a starchy New England clergyman—all these progenitors lead to a modern-day couple and their smiling son….


Turkey Leftovers 2.0: Family-Style Nachos

I realize I am getting ahead of myself by talking turkey leftovers right now, but only by a week or so. I trust that you have your Thanksgiving turkey centerpiece under control. This recipe is about that turkey and addresses the leftovers you will face. I can’t imagine a better way to use up those…


5 Design Choices That Make Your Home Easier to Clean

Typically, we design and decorate our homes to fit our sense of style—and then those decor choices dictate our cleaning routines. We dust our open shelving weekly, and wipe down the marble countertop daily. But what if the process was reversed? What if we designed our homes to make them as easy to clean as…