12 Life Lessons My Mom Taught Me

I have a mother that others wish they had. Their mothers have died, or live far away, or they miss having the close relationship that I have with my mom. At 93.5 years, Mom has survived the death of her husband after 60 years of marriage, overcome severe health problems, and endured the deaths of most of her friends and family. She could feel sorry for herself, but she doesn’t. Her eyes and face glow with an inner light that beckons and welcomes anyone in her presence. She is serene. She is playful. When she laughs, we all laugh. We can’t

What If You Spent 10,000 Hours Practicing Happiness?

Have you ever thought about practicing happiness instead of chasing it? Last week we had the good fortune to attend the Mountain States Basketball Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada. We were cheering for Wyoming since my husband Dennis is from Sheridan, Wyoming, and we were ecstatic when the Wyoming Cowboys won and earned a place in the NCAA. We practiced lots of happiness as we cheered each shot and won each game. I noticed another phenomenon as the tournament progressed. Some people began supporting other teams who won after their teams lost. They sat with the other team’s fans,

How a Greeting Card Can Help You Live Longer

If you don’t want to live longer, don’t make friends.When I was fourteen, I realized that I wasn’t popular, but I wanted to be. I am an only child, and I was more comfortable talking with adults. I was extremely tentative if I was left in a room to play with other kids. I wasn’t so much a geek as a bookworm.One cloudless afternoon I pondered my loneliness sitting alone in my backyard, and I noticed a swallowtail butterfly drifting from one flower to another. I wanted to be that butterfly, able to shift and sip from flower to flower

10 Wacky Things I Did to Lose Weight

Are you writing down the same New Year’s resolution to lose weight that you had last year…the one that failed because it’s huge and life-changing and you haven’t thought through how to accomplish it? We wrote a funny card called, “The Yoga Frog Diet” designed to show the challenge of losing weight. With so many choices in front of us, it seems the only possible way to succeed is not to eat, but we know that this is not a solution—just a wish. I used to weigh 172 pounds when I was 22. I don’t have photos to prove it