Now that Thanksgiving is behind us (and I hope yours was happy!), it’s full steam ahead to Christmas, New Year’s, Hanukkah or whatever holiday you may celebrate!  For many of us, that means trimming a tree, lighting the menorah, baking, shopping, wrapping gifts, cooking galore, and if you’re like me, hanging lights on your trees and shrubs.  This is good for a laugh--here’s a picture of me hanging lights on my pine trees that are getting enormously taller each year!  Good thing I invested in an extension pole...

  Here are some sobering statistics for you today: A whopping 40 million adult Americans are affected by varying degrees of anxiety.  That’s just under one out of five of us! And as if that number wasn’t startling enough, the prevalence of anxiety is increasing, especially over the last decade or so, and it’s affecting people and younger and younger ages. Current estimates show that 50 percent of mental health problems are established by age...

  Here’s a little brain humor to start your day: “I don't know why my brain has kept all the words to the Gilligan's Island theme song and has deleted everything about triangles.” – Jeff Foxworthy "It's perfectly okay to make a decision and then change your mind. Being able to change your mind is the best way to find out you still have one." —William E. Lewis, Jr. Yes, that mass in your skull...

  Now that communities are beginning to open back up following the COVID-19 mitigation measures, jokes and memes about the “COVID-15” (weight gain resulting from the lockdowns) are flooding social media.  While gaining weight in most instances is not the best thing for your health, there is an arguably far more serious consequence of our recent forced quarantines and the social and economic devastation that has resulted. Depression! Even people who were never prone to...

  My Mom (who passed away in 2015 at age 94) spent the last three years of her life in a nursing home after falling and breaking her hip. And although those final years were filled with pain and being confined to a wheelchair, she would always say to me with a smile, “I hurt from head to toe, but it’s OK, Sher. I still know who you are.” Amen! Unfortunately, increasing numbers of people...

  I don’t often do this, but for the last few days I have forced myself to sit and watch the mainstream news in the morning and evening. And all I can say is it’s no wonder that people in the US (and in other countries around the world) are frantic. First off, COVID-19 coverage COMPLETELY monopolizes the program.  It’s as if everything else in the entire world has come to a standstill.  A large...