Friends Life Care member, Valerie Brown, knows about the power intention has to shape lives.  Being raised in poverty in Brooklyn, New York,  her intentions were simple:  “Make money.  Get out of Brooklyn”, which wasn’t the swanky place it is today. This intention drove her to law school and to an intense, crazy-busy and high stakes career as a successful lobbyist and attorney. Days folded into months, which became years, until a couple of decades had passed. And one day, she had a sort of calling – an epiphany – that led her life down a very different pa…

January could very well be called vision month. It is the first month in the year that bears the numbers we’ve come to associate with perfect vision. It is also the month in which Americans celebrate the life and work of a visionary, Martin Luther King Jr.  And, it is Glaucoma Awareness Month. How much do you know about glaucoma? Your answer may determine whether you have vision for the future.
According to the National Council for Aging Care, “Glaucoma is the root cause of about 10 percent of total blindness in the United States, and many of the people affected are s…

What if we approached the New Year in the way a bride approaches her wedding day? We would not have to worry ourselves with well-intentioned New Year resolutions. Instead, we’d simply decide on four things to take into the new year—“something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.”

Most of us are familiar with this traditional English wedding rhyme that dates to the nineteenth century. In its shortened contemporary version (“and a sixpence in her shoe” is seldom used), the rhyme contains the clues to the “four good-luck objects…a bride…

Do you believe in miracles?

At sunset on Sunday, December 22, 2019, Jews will begin the 8-day celebration of Hanukkah. It commemorates the victory of the Maccabees over the Syrian Greek army, and the subsequent rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and miracle of the rekindling of its menorah.

The story of Hanukkah is a mixture of history and legend. According to history,
In 167 B.C., a Syrian officer brought an unnamed Jew to the temple [Second Temple] and forced him to make a sacrifice to Zeus. A priest named Mattathias witnessed the event. He slew them …

It truly is a magical time of the year. It is magical in the way it seems to transform individuals—children and adults—to kinder, happier people. The effect that the Christmas season has on our mood, our attitude, is undoubtedly positive. We are nicer, more apt to laugh and play and party. We are quicker to share, to give, to be generous.

For some of us older adults, however, the Christmas season also means that our grief is heightened and our sadness deepened as we become more mindful of what we may have lost in the way of health, money, companionship, independence….