Who thought Carmen Shenk’s book about kitchen simplicity could change your thoughts about your own home?
I love how this book helped me see my home through the author’s lens of simplicity and how it jump-started new ideas for me about how to better organize my kitchen. Even now, weeks after I finished the book, I am still evaluating how I set up my kitchen, what’s necessary and loved, and what is just taking up space. I have a renewed energy for my de-cluttering efforts. I also loved Carmen’s approach of keeping her home a haven, and actively keeping out the negative energy that abounds in the world.Keep reading
You go to your annual appointment with your doctor. Routine labs will probably be offered. Depending on your age, this may include a cholesterol check. Depending on the result of that test, you may be told you have high cholesterol and ‘need’ to take a statin medicine.
This is based on some established guidelines. Have you ever wondered exactly who it is that decides these guidelines? What would you think if you knew that half of the doctors who wrote the 2013 guidelines had ties to the drug companies that make statins?Keep reading
I have been talking a lot recently about how much I recommend choosing a word to focus on every year, so I thought I should look at the practice I had been taking for granted a bit more deeply.
I turned, as I always do, to books. I found this one: My One Word, by Mike Ashcroft and Rachel Olsen. I recommend this book to you. You can find it anywhere books are sold, or at the library, where books are borrowed. 😉 This book is helping me go deeper this year with the process of choosing my word, or rather, allowing my word to reveal itself to me.
Because that’s what is happening this year.
This happened to me once before, in 2015. I already had a word picked out that year but then I looked at the My One Word website and a different word, the word BRAVE, chose me. Now that I have read this (and other) book(s), my true word for 2019 has arrived. It’s a good one. Stay tuned.Keep reading
Five generations of the Collins family have served in the Maine State Legislature. Both of my parents served as mayor of my hometown of Caribou. My father, a decorated World War II veteran, also served one term in the Maine House and four terms in the state Senate, and my mother has served on countless boards and commissions, always rising to leadership positions.
I had great role models at home who always taught me that I did not have the right to complain if I sat on the sidelines and did not get involved.
One specific experience that led me to follow in their footsteps occurred when I was a senior in high school and was chosen to participate in the U.S. Senate Youth Program. The highlight of my trip to Washington was meeting Maine’s Senator Margaret Chase Smith – the first woman elected to both the House and the Senate, and the first woman to have her name entered into nomination for President by a major party. Her courageous “Declaration of Conscience” speech took a stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy. Her integrity, determination, and bravery continue to inspire me today.Keep reading
I watched this commercial on TV and my jaw dropped:
This is personal for me because I had my own experience several years ago with the whooping cough vaccine. I was seeing a new doctor because my beloved primary care doctor had left the practice. As part of the visit, the new doctor offered me the Pertussis (aka Whooping Cough Vaccine), which I declined.
But she wouldn’t let it go.
She started to alternately re-offer it, to try to persuade me to agree to have it, and then to cajole me into it, without success. My decision was made prior to my encounter with her. And then she shocked me by forcefully making this statement:Keep reading
This is based on some established guidelines. Have you ever wondered exactly who it is that decides these guidelines? What would you think if you knew that half of the doctors who wrote the 2013 guidelines had ties to the drug companies that make statins?
Karen Creamer
