What is up with the wild turkeys? Last week we talked about the New Providence turkey stopping traffic - so Saturday morning, a friend of mine who lives out by Pingry thought she was heading for work, until she walks out to her car, and finds: a turkey perched on top of it! Just standing there, like, ‘What are you looking at?’ Then, she reports, ‘I learned why they say it’s useless to try to shoo a turkey away…’

She ran and got her camera instead. A picture tells a thousand words, in this case, ‘Why I may be late for work’…

Turkey, as you recall from last week, stands for Give-Away in Native American Animal Medicine – to give freely, so that others may live.

I can’t think of any one person who embodies the Native American principle of Give-Away more than Mom. So it is with heavy heart that I say my Mom’s care has gone into hospice phase.

One of the reasons I love living here in our towns is the nature all around us. Mom is a farm girl from Minnesota, so every day I would call her, back in Chicago, and tell her my nature stories of the day.

It’s an awful funny feeling- no more phone calls.

As my friend David observes, ’When Mom is sick, the whole world stops…’

So it seems for me, as I head out to Chicago.

Thinking of gatherings at home, Thanksgiving memories aren’t far behind. Preparing the turkey and giblets on Thanksgiving mornings, Mom loved the turkey gizzard. So did I, and my big sister liked the liver, so that was no contest. One year, I was small, or bratty, or selfish, I don’t remember which--Mom let me have the gizzard. What was left for her to receive, was the tiny turkey heart.

Its tiny size belies the heart’s true power. The heart seems to grow huge by giving.

This week, the message of turkey might be to give thanks. Or if you have a Mom, give her a hug, and tell her ‘I love you.’ Or, to quote the book ‘Medicine Cards’ , ‘You may feel the spirit of giving growing within you, and wanting you to share with others.’…

As a spiritual friend notes, ‘This seems to be the season of the mothers…’

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Upon Therese’s return, join her for Guided Meditation Wednesdays at 5:30 at the Clarence Dillon Public Library in Bedminster, in concert with the Somerset Hills YMCA. Call 908 234 0073. Explore your spiritual connection with nature, and share your nature stories with the group!

Nature has some funny ways of communicating—so what do you think the guest appearance of a territorial Turkey in rush hour traffic is trying to tell us?

One day, I’m driving down Springfield Avenue in New Pro....
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5th of July Thoughts 4 the Beach

While you are thinking of nothing in particular, taking in the sun, the water, the beauty in the summer countryside, thinking about your life from this new vacation perspective - I give you some thoughts from a grateful friend.

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6/27/2010
Oprah Therese & the Happy Hollywood Ending

We all look for the Hollywood happy ending, don’t we? And there’s nothing in life like that warm feeling of knowing someone’s got your back- which Sandra Bullock famously said, right before the Academy Awards. (Which is probably why the Sandra Bullock breakup ....
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6/13/2010
Trout, BP, The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Peering down into a summer stream, I can almost imagine being a trout, skimming deep and smooth thru the water, my gills pumping good oxygen— till suddenly the oxygen is starved out. Barely any circulating. And I go all still.

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6/7/2010
Turtle and BP: Brown Pelican

What do you do with the image now burned in our brains – a Gulf Coast brown pelican sinking in the slick, so drenched in oil, that the only life force left is the breath in his bill? An image so riveting and horrifying both, that even Fox and CNN found common ....
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5/24/2010
Changing the Focus

There’s no escaping reality, but sometimes, we can change the focus…

At the YMCA @ Riverwalk, a member puts in a request: ‘All morning, it’s all pictures of the oil slick and the plane crash. So depressing! Can we change one of ....
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5/9/2010
The Quick-Chek Prayer

I was over at the Quick-Chek in Garwood (their fresh bread makes all the difference!) when I was struck by the line printed atop the ticket for my sub: ‘Please continue to shop while your request is being prepared.’ It sounded a lot....
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5/3/2010
Serving Two Masters

What if we could crack your eye open—see what’s really going on in there, and begin to see things differently? Doing the rohrschach test last week with Meteorologist Bill Evans’ volcano lightning photo, it was cool how my meditation group sa....
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4/26/2010
Hair-on-Fire, Burning-Lava Confidence

Imagine finding out that your Dad, the guy who’s always been in your corner, is secretly betting against you, behind your back…It’s kind of a prodigal son twist: Dad loans you money, but if you fail, he more than makes up for the loss in the....
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4/19/2010
Hot Tut Time Machine

Have you gotten tired of all the conflict in the news yet? Then jump into the hot-tub time machine with me, bounding beyond the headline ‘Vampire Love Cop’, and ‘Christie Education Cuts’, and we’ll sink down in the bubbles for ‘Return of the King’…

....
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4/12/2010
Life in Kindergarten

Everything I know to be true today, I learned teaching kindergarten last week. Or, as my friend Ed put it: ‘Reaching a higher level of enlightenment.’ And after my mind returned from mush two days later, I realized he was right!

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3/29/2010
Sacrifice & Tiffany: Peace & Space to Dream

Friday night under the lights, on a guerilla mission to the mall: what is this, a flurry of shoppers? In Tiffany, no less! ‘Yes!’ -says the saleslady—‘People seem to be coming out again, knock wood!’

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3/22/2010
’Sounds of Green: The Sweetest Thing’

As the Irish Band U-2 might sing, isn’t it just ‘the sweetest thing’ – the sounds that come with the color Green? And what a long strange winter it’s been:

Cold, cold, cold snow, cold snow, cold Nor’easter bl....
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3/15/2010
"Comfort Trend: The Gathering"

Hard times call for comfort. Look for the Comfort Trend: The Gathering.

What got me thinking along these lines was a piece on Newser, ‘Why Are All These People Suddenly Watching Television?’ After a decade of declining TV audie....
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3/8/2010
From The Beaches of Phuket

Ran into a friend in Summit -- he’s just back from the Thai beaches of Phuket. Poetic, because that’s how I’d been feeling, along with many other people I know…

(and by the way, it’s....
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2/26/2010
Blizzards Goats and Earthquakes in NJ

We are certainly living in interesting times- as in the fabled Chinese curse, ‘May you live in interesting times….’ At the Summit train station, I saw a man whose wooly dog was cowering at the sound of the train. The dog was shivering at his....
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2/22/2010
’It All Begins With A Con...’

…versation, or the swing of a golf club, or whatever happened between Tiger and Elin. ‘You and I have started the process of discussing the damage done by my behavior.’ And did you notice how Tiger Woods immediately humbled ....
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2/14/2010
Love & Economic Distress

If all the TARP Billions have bought us one good thing, it’s ‘economic distress’ : the non-euphemistic term the banks have given us to save face. And that one good thing, strangely enough, has produced one great thing: the feeling of gratitude for the smallest....
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2/8/2010
Cigars & Roses

Have you ever noticed? …after the Superbowl, guys tend to hide out like groundhogs, until about oh, say, February 15th, when the threat fueled by Hallmark and DeBeers and ProFlowers has passed.

Seriously, I’m....
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2/1/2010
Somewhere Over the Groundhog

Now that it’s Groundhog Week---maybe we can be dragged out of our little burrows and our little mental ruts? Because, blame it on the full moon, or the weather, but have you noticed how cranky people have been getting lately?!

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1/25/2010
Come Into the Garden

It’s not only the Jets giving new meaning to the phrase Garden State Green...because of course, isn’t this just what we needed in the cradle of the pharmaceutical industry: Jersey F....
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1/18/2010
Right Place, Right Time, Right Team

‘Just to be in this position, after all the stuff that took place—it’s a wonderful moment’…

We should all get so lucky as Brett-the-former-Jet-Favre at age 40, taking the Vikings int....
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1/11/2010
Making A Decision

Just a week into the New Year, amid the fabled fresh new start of January, and already the resolutions are battle-weary. Have you felt the struggle? For some reason this year, (could be as simple as the weather, or as complex as the economy)....
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12/28/2009
‘Say The Word’

The New Year has a power, magic and grace that defies explanation, when you just ‘Say The Word’-whatever ‘The Word’ is to you. I offer you this little story to give you courage and hope, to prepare for your success. Because while this happen....
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12/21/2009
’Fear Not’

‘Fear Not, for I bring you tidings of great joy…’

As both an Anchorwoman, and working with people at Overlook Hospital, I so love that saying because it’s confident.

It says <....
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12/14/2009
A Hannukristmas Miracle

Possibly the #2 current communication glitch, ranking right up there with friendships blowing up over a misunderstood text (or e-mail) --- How do you say ‘Happy Holidays’???

Joining the holiday throng at the S....
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12/7/2009
Holiday Shapeshifting

I saw the fox loping across the lawn during our beautiful December Saturday snow. In the animal kingdom, fox is known as the shapeshifter, and there’s plenty of shapeshifting we could wish for this holiday season…

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11/30/2009
No Place Like Home: Heaven is NJ

Lost amid the Thanksgiving week news of Amazon vs Wal-Mart, mortgage loans underwater, Oprah and Obama and Afghanistan: ‘NJ is Heaven: Iranian Revolutionary Guard.’ WHAT? New Jersey as heaven?!

I’ve been thinking about it all w....
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11/23/2009
Thanksgiving Glimmers

Thanksgiving comes -- abruptly -- hustling up the end of the year like a large raccoon with a silent request for gratitude. Some years, it’s a stretch -- you don’t quite know what to feed the ....
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11/16/2009
It’s Kinetic
Kinetic is such a good word- it means motion, energizing. Sometimes, even in this world, we can find ourselves in energizing situations, catching a new wave, in spite of ourselves...

Like now, with whole industries ....
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