Last Friday I blogged about how important gratitude is in the lives of children.  Research shows children who are raised to be grateful for the world around them are, among other things, happier, most socially connected, and better students. 

Gratitude isn’t just important for children, of course.  Adults who kept a gratitude journal for just three weeks reported a variety of improvements in their lives including lowered blood pressure, an increased sense of well-being, and a surge in compassion and forgiveness.  There’s more about this in a wonderful article, Why Gratitude is Good, from Robert A. Emmons, by way of the Greater Good Science Center, and the article page is chock full of additional resources for you to enjoy, as well. (more…)

Okay, in unison now. Gr. . oa. . n. All that food. Turkey, ham, shepherd’s pie, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans in every incarnation. Fruitcake, Christmas cookies, latkes and applesauce. Are you full yet?

And now we have leftovers!

I love taking whatever’s left of a turkey and making gumbo. Turkey gumbo, well, its even better than chicken, richer, deeper flavor. I add the leftover gravy and any broth I have left from the giblets. If you “really” want my recipe, you’ll find it if you go to my book page and click on Rising Tides. Iron Lace has the broth recipe. Just think turkey and go from there. (more…)

 It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
by Edmund Sears
1849

It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold:
“Peace on the earth, good will to men,
from heaven’s all-gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats
O’er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains,
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o’er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing. (more…)

Greater Good Science Center.  Really?  I didn’t remember “liking” any such institution on my Facebook page, but now these interlopers were sending me updates. Just as I was about to send them to “unlike” purgatory, the link itself caught my eye.

Gratitude vs. Materialism. 

Okay, now I realized who they were.  GGSC researches emotional and social well-being and even better, finds ways to apply their findings.  The organization might want to rethink its name, but the headline intrigued me.  So off I went to explore.  Quite honestly if I wrote as many hours as I “explore” I might turn out three books for every one I actually do. 

As it turns out, this post was part of a blog by a sociologist, Christine Carter, who studies happiness and explains how her findings can help us raise happy children. (more…)

T’is the CHUsday before Christmas, and I don’t have to peek in your windows to see how fast you’re running.  Whether it’s Hanukkah or Christmas, Kwanzaa or Winter Solstice you’ll celebrate this week, you’re rushing and wrapping and decorating to chase away winter’s shadows.

This is the time of year for fast food, for drive-in hamburgers or buckets of chicken.  Even vegetarians can find possibilities as they zip from school concerts to office parties.

I’m not a big fan of fast food.  Sometimes it’s a treat, but most of the time I feel guilty.  I imagine my cholesterol and blood pressure charting new territory, and you have to admit, that sort of spoils the fun.  So to avoid the guilt as often as possible, I’ve developed a few recipes I can easily make from scratch and enjoy with just a bit of lead time and planning. (more…)

Welcome to Sunday Poetry.  If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday poetry blogs here.

I’m learning I must read at least ten or even twenty poems before I find one I want to feature here.  Not because the others aren’t wonderful, but because I want to share poetry that’s accessible and hopeful, poetry that explores the human heart in all its depth, but leaves me glad to be human.

Looking for just the right Christmas poem, I read many before I stumbled on Christmas 1963 at Writer’s Almanac, where many of the poems on this blog come from.  I was so moved that I knew you would be, too.  Right now how many families are undergoing the same trials, yet perservering and supporting each other?  What will their children remember in years to come? 

I was personally reminded of a Christmas when money for anything but food and mortgage was hard to come by and my husband and I shopped at garage sales and secretly refurbished toys so there would be a decent showing under our Christmas tree.  Most of us have had Christmases like that.  How do you remember yours?  What Christmas or other important holiday in your life was worthy of poetry?

Remember there are no quizzes here, no right ways to read or contemplate the poem we share.  Absolutely no dissecting allowed.  Just come along for the “read.”  What line, word or thought will you carry with you this week?  If you’d like to tell us where the poem took you?  We’ll listen.

Some of you have been reading this blog long enough to remember that each Christmas I “gift” you with new Booklover Carols. For those who hoped I would forget this tradition, my apologies. For those who crave more, you’ll find links to tongue-in-cheek carols from previous years at the end. 

This year we highlight the “publishing world” with a brand new duo.  “Borders, the Bookstore,” honors, well, you can figure that out from the title.  I find it ironic that just last year I honored the many independent bookstores that had closed.  Who will be next?

“Manuscript is Coming to Town,” honors all my colleague who so often are stuck with December deadlines somewhere along the endless parade of finishing the book, receiving revision letters, receiving edits to go over, receiving copy edits to go over, and finally, receiving galleys.  Personally I’m working on edits due next week, so this one seems appropriate. (more…)

So how do you feel about fruit cake?  I see a collective screwing of faces out there.  But honestly this fruitcake, packed with chocolate chips, cherries, dates and walnuts  is hard to beat.  Did you get that?  CHOCOLATE chips in fruitcake?  Yum!

I learned to make this recipe in the 1970s, and I’ve made it every Christmas since.  The friend who gave me the recipe called it Bishop’s Cake, and why would I argue?  I’ve seen it called other names since then, but this one stuck for me.  It lasts a long time when refrigerated and it’s rich.  One small slice is plenty. (Don’t take the photo too seriously.  Bishop’s Cake is mostly nuts and fruits with much less batter than my illustration.)

So here’s a Christmas gift for you, an easy one to make once the ingredients have been assembled.  I guarantee you’ll be pleased. (more…)

Welcome to Sunday Poetry.  If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday poetry blogs here.

I love this time of year.  I love the traditions that come with it, religious and otherwise, although I could be easily persuaded not to love shopping or worrying if a gift carefully chosen is gift enough.

When my children were still living at home we made a few forays into the world of gingerbread houses, and now I’ve begun the tradition of sending my granddaughter a gingerbread house kit to decorate and enjoy each holiday.  Advent by Mary Jo Salter takes a closer look at this ritual, as only a poem can.  Salter is an important figure in the New Formalist movement of poetry, and if you don’t know what that means, neither did I.  The good news is that in no way will that affect your appreciation of this poem. 

Remember there are no quizzes here, no right ways to read or contemplate the poem we share.  Absolutely no dissecting allowed.  Just come along for the “read.”  What line, word or thought will you carry with you this week?  If you’d like to tell us where the poem took you?  We’ll listen.

This week I had a showdown with a  tooth possessing a crooked root and no remorse.  Tooth and I were slated, with no other possibilities, for a date with my friendly, skillful dentist, whose news was destined to unmake my day. 

I put off the trip for two months, conveniently sick the first time, conveniently out of town for the second one.   But this week I faced the music.   What helped me gather courage for the trip?  Something oddly wonderful.  I read Room by Emma Donoghue for my online book club. 

I won’t be giving away anything important if I say that in a minor plot point one of the two major characters in Room (a book I highly recommend) was badly in need of a trip to her dentist and couldn’t go.  Although there were much loftier and profound issues in the story, I was also struck by how lucky I am to 1–have a great dentist, 2–be able to visit him at will, 3–afford to visit him.  Room helped me see the light, although I am sure Donoghue never thought as she wrote the book, “This is great, now more people will appreciate the dental care they take for granted.” Novels can be sneaky that way. (more…)