altared spaces

3 ways to clean your way out of a bad mood plus bonus

January 6, 2012
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  I have the post holiday blues. I had so much fun decorating cookies and skiing with Santa that the return to work this Monday was a bit of a let down even if I do adore my job. I also had mouth surgery and I find the hole in my mouth leaves a deeper [...]

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peeling back the plenty

December 24, 2011
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Every year we find a penny and an orange in the toe of our stockings. It reminds me to be grateful for small things. I love the fresh aroma of that small ball as I peel back the skin and my nose welcomes the smell of snow and skiing and childhood winter snacks. The penny [...]

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darkness and light

December 19, 2011
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Welcome guest author Lindsey of A Design So Vast! In the last few years I have grown more aware of, and more intimate with, the powerful relationship I have with both light and dark, but the truth is it’s a theme that has run through my whole life. There’s no better example of this than [...]

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december dilemma

December 14, 2011
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Welcome guest blogger Kristen from Motherese! This year Christmas falls smack dab in the middle of Hanukkah. This fact would have meant nothing to me as a child. Now it means a lot. Growing up, I was a good Catholic girl who went to a Catholic school in a largely Catholic town. I went to [...]

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what do you tell your kids about santa?

December 8, 2011
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I have never had the talk with my children about Santa. This is because I never wanted to let myself overhear that bit of news. I grew up in a home where I wasn’t allowed to believe. Jesus was the reason for the season and Santa was merely a distraction. But then we had huge [...]

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cinnamon rolls taste like gratitude

November 28, 2011
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Because many sticky fingered readers asked me about my Thanksgiving snowflakes I’m reposting this.   Cinnamon rolls remind me to be grateful, consequently they are my altared space today.  When my children were young my husband and I lived in the same town as both our parents.  With divorce on both sides we had a [...]

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can we lead with softness?

September 29, 2011
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I live in a country where a huge number of people don’t want to give a last meal to a person headed to the gallows and it makes me want to barf. What does that say about us? Who are we cultivating in our citizenry?   Texas Senator John Whitmire says, “I have long been [...]

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diamonds, dirt and empty spaces

September 4, 2011
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           My husband and I were in the airport, listening to the boarding blather, “We’d like to welcome our gold guests to cross our red carpet.” We continued to stand where we were and snickered. Our turn to board the plane would come after the beautiful people.            “The diamond customers may now board the plane.” [...]

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a river of questions

August 6, 2011
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“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” -Shakespeare   Where we live shapes the narrative of our lives. In Ireland people can afford to be liberal with water. But where I live, in the western part of Colorado, you feel the desert just down the road from the bend in the river and [...]

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the power of paradox

July 29, 2011
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          There is juxtaposition in every nature trip I’ve taken. The more grand and vast the scenery around me and the smaller I become by comparison, the more aligned I feel with my essential self. It seems an oxymoron that the more insignificant I feel, the more whole I become.           Staring through blades of [...]

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alaska’s alsek river

July 3, 2011
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“Sometimes not writing is  a writing exercise.” -Margaret Reyes Dempsey I haven’t been writing much, and that is my altared space today. I’ve been doing those things writers do: living the details so I can write about them later and understand my life. Just now I am preparing for a trip down the Alsek River in [...]

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