How to Succeed Despite the Naysayers.

Do you have a naysaying voice in your head?  A little devil that jumps on your shoulder and whispers in your ear.....

"That's the silliest idea I've ever heard."

"Don't waste your time." or " It'll never work."

I certainly have. It's the same voice that tells me I did not complete a project perfectly. I ate too many cookies, didn't exercise enough, should have preempted my children leaving their cellphones/homework/ PE kit at home and should have written that thank you letter 2 weeks ago.

Why The Duchess of Cambridge (Kate) Would Find Treatment Diaries Comforting.

How many of you keep or have in the past, kept a private written record of your thoughts and feelings?

How many of you would feel comfortable publishing your emotions and having hundreds or even thousands of people read them?

During my teens I often expressed my teenage angst in a diary that is so well hidden I have no idea where it is now!

So given my preference for privacy you might be wondering how I came to be writing a blog, especially one that expresses a myriad of emotions.( I often wonder this myself!)

Finding Inspiration In The Every Day- 5

From birth we learn to respond to feedback and encouragement. From first smiles to first steps, from riding a bicycle to driving a car, we learn and gain confidence from the compliments and constructive feedback we receive for our efforts.

As adults I think it's safe to say we all appreciate a thoughtful word, comment  or thank you in a harried day.

An Expat's View - If I Can Move, So Can You! Some Tips For Success

As the world gets smaller we find ourselves with bigger opportunities in faraway places. 

Over the weekend, we met up with a British family who had just moved into the Washington DC area. They came for tea    (what else?)  and as I listened to their week of firsts in a new country: first visit to the grocery store, hunting for a rental, finding a school, buying coats for the kids etc,  it brought me back to the beginnings of each of our moves to new homes in countries around the world.....

Brainstorm: A Year In Review

Have you noticed that opportunities often open up, when you are least expecting them? 


Since tomorrow evening  the Jewish New Year 5773 begins at sunset,  I am posting earlier than usual. It's customary at the beginning of a new year to reflect on the year that has just passed. So in the spirit of David Letterman, Time Magazine and of course the BBC I thought I would take you back to some of my earlier postings.

This time last year, September 2011, my children and I were completely consumed with Jonny's worsening  illness with no road map for recovery and writing was the last thing on my mind. Looking back I could never have predicted the silver linings in the universe and I had no idea that I would be blogging weekly with such an amazingly supportive audience.(that's YOU-thank you!)


In February 2012  I moved from posting about  Jonny's health on a site called Lotsahelpinghands, to taking the plunge into a whole new universe by launching  this blog, Brainstorm.

When I reread the first post I ever wrote on Brainstorm, I thought it might provide you with some  food for thought as many of us head into a new year full of unexpected opportunities.

Click on the link below to read my first post -A New Universe.
http://gillycannon.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-universe.html

As is traditional I would like to wish you and your families a Shana Tovah U'metukah- a good and sweet year, free from pain of any kind.

With love and appreciation. 
Gilly

Many thanks to you all for your support of  Brainstorm. Please help spread the blog readership by sharing this post or others to your face book page. It's very simple to do. Click on the F icon at the very bottom of this post, write a comment if you like and post the link. 

Thank you! 

 Please email me at gilly@bringingbooksofcomfort.org or leave a comment on this post below. I'd love to have your feedback. 

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A Mile In My Shoes - update

About 5 weeks ago I wrote a post called How Do You Cope? This was part of a Coping Carnival initiated by a blogger Rebecca at her site Here Come The Girls. A few days ago she published a link to my post along with 5 other bloggers' links about how different people cope with the challenges in their lives.

These stories are stories of struggle, survival and joyful living in the face of great challenges.They are truly inspiring.

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.

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?

A New Universe

My paternal grandmother, Vivien, was a petite, blond, quintessential English lady and an astute businesswoman. She was the perfect grandmother as far as I, her first grandchild, was concerned. She had stocks of my favorite fondant mini cakes and always made meals for at least 30 people even when there were only 6 of us for dinner. Her chicken soup pot was bottomless and my father always enjoyed teasing her that there were at least 15 potatoes for each person. She took me to the ballet and out to restaurants for lunch. She was generous to a fault. She loved beautiful things and she saw the best in people. Her response to a difficult situation was always “As one door closes three open.” and I have carried that mantra with me however clichéd it sounds.

As I have been trying to make sense of the last five months of Jonny’s illness, brain surgery and recovery it has occurred to me how pieces of our family life seemed unwittingly to have fallen into place just in time for Jonny’s trigeminal neuralgia to roar into action.