Competing Contrasts:Little and Large

Diagram from the NY Yankees

Last week I wrote about our idyllic days at the beach- just Jonny and I in a large beautiful house, with room enough for 3 families. This week we are in Manhattan, reunited with 2 of our sons, squished into one hotel room on the Upper West Side.

Beach Break -Tales and Tips

Jonny and I are at the beach. It is a cloudless day and we are sitting side by side in low slung beach chairs. We have some shade from an oversized umbrella and our feet are partially buried in the white, clean sand. The sun is bathing us in its warmth and we are watching the waves tumble onto the shore as the Sandpipers hop away from the foamy puddles just in time.

If you feel as though you have read this before, you would be right.

The Strength Of The Human Spirit

Design by Jazzydesignz

There is no doubt that first responders, soldiers and other brave men and women who choose to take on life threatening jobs to keep us safe are very special people indeed. 

They need to be physically strong, psychologically stable and extremely well trained to carry out their missions. 

Equally however there seems to a piece of them that needs to be extraordinarily positive, determined, thoughtful and caring in order to cope with the aftermath of their experiences. 

The strength of mind and spirit in these soldiers seems to be as important as the buffed up muscles in their torsos and biceps.

After my post How Do You Cope? I received this very poignant message from Marcy, a breast cancer survivor herself, who had spent the day at Walter Reed Army Hospital in DC. 

With Marcy's permission here is her comment.

How Do You Cope?

    I am writing this blog  after four days without power in our home, as a result of the most incredible storm on Friday night. It crashed through the Washington DC area, devastating lives, damaging a lot of property and leaving millions of people without power in sweltering 100F weather. One of my friends from out of state texted me asking,

        How are you coping?