During my time with Lori and Julie, I felt the weight of the burden that they carry around every day. “The jail is a dark place, a sad and sometimes evil place,” said Lori, who admitted that some days she wants to despair and give up because what she sees is just too painful. Despite those moments of hopelessness, she said, “I can feel the presence of God walking with me, and I know his work has to be done here.” The women have such a sincere love for their patients that it wrings the heart. “I look at every single one of them as if they were part of my family,” Lori told me with tears in her eyes. “This person could be my mother, my brother, my child who’s been broken by this world. Are we just going to abandon them? We’re all brothers and sisters.”
Upon first look, Antwerp, Belgium is as charming as the postcards found in souvenir shops throughout its twisting passages and nonsensical medieval streets. The sounds of the Flemish-Dutch language echo in the bars over pints of more than a hundred kinds of Belgian beer. The facades of the tall, thin, Amsterdam-style canal houses are stately and magnificent, and when experienced for the first time … you almost believe this is a little slice of Amsterdam.
My daughters and I recently played the board game Life® and faced the proverbial question: college or no college? My children are in fifth and third grades this year, and I was startled to realize that this generation heads off to college in eight short years! As a financial advisor, I wondered, how many parents have started planning for these future costs?
If you’re of Celtic descent (Irish, Scottish or Welsh) and you love Halloween, rejoice! The holiday was created by your ancient, pagan ancestors.
We live in a community of runners. A lot of the credit likely goes to the Crim, specifically their training program. I watched my first Crim from the sidelines in 2009 and decided, after seeing people of all shapes, sizes and abilities doing it and owning it, that I was going to give it a try. I believed I could, especially after seeing that a lot of participants mixed running with walking; I had no idea you could walk when you were doing a “run!” (You can, much to the consternation of hard-core runners.)
Hollywood be damned – France can rightly claim its title as the birthplace of cinema, and the films from its shores – or made elsewhere by sons and daughters of the Republic – continue to be relevant everywhere.
I hate carrying a purse. In high school and even in college, I loathed the female obsession with purses so much that I used a wallet. Finally, when it became necessary to carry medication with me, I borrowed a purse from a friend. It was a simple design – brown leather, not too flashy – but it was Coach. Then, something happened to me. As I carried this purse, I became aware of its ability to bestow status. At the mall, I used to hope that people would notice what brand my bag was and envy it – and it wasn’t even mine! When I eventually returned the purse to my friend and bought one of my own (at Target), I was both relieved and discontented. I was relieved because I didn’t like how I had acted when I carried the Coach bag, but discontented because I had lost something that had made me feel good, even if it was shallow. In the end, the whole experience just made me feel empty.
