Some people find little moments of peace in life by making jokes, having a drink, getting a massage, or reading a trashy sex novel so that they can forget whatever it is they need to forget.  This is a time in history where a lot of people need solace, comfort and peace.  Imagine trying to find peace sitting on your couch watching television and your house explodes around you, or you are enjoying a beautiful day on a sidewalk when the earth is rocked and people are flying around you.

Over the last week and a half, alarming news and images glared at us every time we opened our laptops, used our smart phones, checked Facebook, or turned on the television.  Horrible and vivid images of blood splatter on the streets of Boston, molten heaps of rubble in the small town of West, and hoards of shattered lives.  All of this spewed out by the media whether the facts of the story were right or not.  Either way, the images never lied.

Needing a little extra peace?  You could do what many have done in the past, take a hiatus from the news.  That would mean no Internet, no television, no Facebook, no Twitter and so much more.  Not impossible, but very hard to do in our society, especially if you need to see how traffic is moving before you leave the house for work.

Of course, inner peace comes in many forms, and giving is always one of them.  It feels good to give and to help someone else piece their life back together.  Even if that person is forever going to miss a piece of their own life and we probably can never make them whole again, we can help.  Amazingly, a lot of the people who need our help can help us find our inner peace.  They are calm about their situation.  They know things will improve, they will rebuild their lives.  Most importantly, they have handed us an easy opportunity to help others.  Here are some ideas:

1.  For people in Boston, there is “The One Fund” found at https://secure.onefundboston.org/page/-/donate4.html.  The money will be distributed to those persons and families of persons that sustained serious injuries and were killed in the bombings.

2.  For people in West, Texas.  At this point the people of West need money.  Money for building materials, food, etc.  If you are in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, you can drop off money or gift cards to The Ballpark in Arlington.  They don’t want your stinky old sheets and blankets, they need money.  You can also donate to the Red Cross www.redcross.com.

Stay safe, and we will continue this with more light-hearted news.

Carpe Diem!

Family time is so important, and families that stick together create great stories to be told later.  My family is no exception, and I love getting together with them – most of the time.  Mainly, I like the stories we create for later.  Some stories I would like to forget, but most of them are fun.  Some are founded in rumor with a sprinkle of truth, others based on hearsay.  In the end, the good stories never seem to die.

For most families, the holidays are the best times to share the stories of the past.  Our family loves to see where everyone is right now and what we have planned for the future, and then of course, we gossip about the crazy relatives that didn’t show for the white elephant gift exchange.  There were years where my grandmother would visit and tell us lavish stories of her life married to an Italian immigrant, being a child in a big Italian family, growing up in the Bronx, and traveling all over the world.  But we are not really sure what was truth and what was confabulation, and I don’t think we really cared.

There are lots of interesting stories that swirl around my family on both sides.  Many started with the sudden job transfer my dad had across the country when my siblings and I were small.  I really don’t know the reason we moved across the country and away from our family in the first place, but honestly, I found it hard to believe that any company, anywhere in the world, would want to transfer their headquarters to a place where the tumbleweed rolled down the street faster than my mom’s car.  Either all of those employees were being punished, including my dad, or we were entering the witness protection program.  Now you see how stories get started.

Just to ease your mind, we were not in the witness protection program, even though it seemed that way since we quickly departed our dust bowl of a town and moved to a more sprawling, urban area with a thriving school system, which is where my siblings and I ultimately grew up.   And even though there were over 1,000 miles that separated us from our family up north, we stayed very close with them.  And as the years rolled on, we created more stories with every single visit, whether it was back up north or down south.

The challenge is keeping the stories alive.  Some families can keep them alive through photographs, scrap booking, writing a family blog, letters or something that signals to everyone “Don’t forget this moment.”   Challenge yourself to put something together for your family.  Some things I have done include:  Secretly recording my grandmother; Had my mother draw a family tree; Started a family tree on Geni (www.geni.com), which took off like a wildfire on a dry, windy day; Created photo books using Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com); and for my own purposes.  Also, I’ve saved scraps of items, newspaper clippings, brochures, and even rocks or any other suitable memorabilia I felt was worth saving.  I also have numerous locked diaries hidden away somewhere hopefully never to be found while I am alive. (just kidding).

Before you know it, one chapter of life will end while another one will immediately begin.   How will you share your life?  Do you have pictures?   Where are they, on your cell phone?  The same cell phone that one day will fall into the toilet when you bend over to wipe yourself?  That’s what I thought.  Challenge yourself to share the stories before they fall in the toilet.

Here are some ideas for you: http://www.instagram.com (upload, touchup and share photos)

http://www.shutterfly.com (upload and store photos, create photo books, calendars, cards)

http://www.geneaology.com (track your family history)

http://www.ancestry.com (track your family history)

http://www.familytreemaker.com or http://www.geni.com (create a family tree with photos and stories)

http://www.wordpress.com (start a family blog)

http://www.facebook.com (create a family page on Facebook, or a page for a family reunion)

Carpe Diem!