Everywhere we read and hear – think positive and you will get positive results. Think negative and you will get negative results.

I’d like to share a version of that thinking which works for me.

When you encounter a situation or problem,

Think positively three times!

The first time is to accept that the problem is real,

The second time is to affirm that it can be solved,

The third time is to acknowledge that YOU are the one who can solve it.

Think positively three times!

Being positive is the key to solving any problem.

The post Three Simple Thoughts to Solve A Problem appeared first on The Penny Friends.

 HEART  TO  HEART

The Penny Friends is a rebirth, and revitalization of women  sharing, nurturing and adding value to other women’s lives.

At the Vancouver Peace Summit, 2009,  The Dalai Lama stated that  ”The World Will Be Saved By the Western Woman“  With these words every woman should look deeply within themselves to find the source of her inspiration and understand that she honors real women whose relentless work continues day after day, irrespective of whether or not they’re in the limelight.

This, ladies, is what The Penny Friends is all about! We are here to honor, help, learn and grow from each other.  Women are stronger when they are connected to other women. Our strength is a beautiful gift we give to each other. Ideas and dreams are important ingredients to us and sometimes we lose them during everyday activities. This group is here to give us the freedom and support to explore and develop our ideas and dreams.

Hopefully, you are as excited as I, to be a part of women coming together, treating each other with respect and helping each other cultivate their creativity and confidence, expand their horizons, make new friends, build their careers, travel together and take  life’s journey with friends.

If you are adventurous or just curious and want to be a part of something more, something unique, something filled with infinite possibilities ~ ~ ~ ~ you have joined the right group.

WELCOME TO THE PENNY FRIENDS

LIVE A LIFE OF INFINITE POSSIBLITIES

The post A Women’s Group That Has It All! appeared first on The Penny Friends.

Our lives are being protected by the young boys and girls fighting in the military

When I see a soldier, I give them the grateful sign by putting my hand on my heart and then move my hand in their direction. It means, from my heart to yours, thank you from my heart, Be Safe. In doing this I have not had one soldier who has not bowed their head in thanks.

Our WWII soldiers are dying off….literally. Many of them wear caps with the regiment they were in or the ship they were on. I have seen people go up to them, as I do, shake their hand and thank them for fighting so that we may live in this great country.

To all who have lost someone close to them through war, it is understandable there are no words one can say to take your pain away. Please, know that we all share respect, appreciation and gratitude for the dignity of our brave soldiers.

For anyone who has lost anyone to war, I would like to share with you part of a letter from a great leader. He felt the pain of the soldiers on the field and the one’s left at home. I think you will recognize his name and give thanks as he did.

“Dear Madam,
“I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine that would attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved, lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom.”
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
Abraham Lincoln”
THANK A SOLDIER TODAY. THEY ARE FIGHTING FOR YOU AND YOUR COUNTRY

The post Our Soldiers – Our Protectors appeared first on The Penny Friends.

When I go their home, they open the door and yell “Nana” and come running into my arms it is a feeling of indescribable joy for me. Pure love is having them fall alseep in my arms. Melting into a puddle is feeling sad and having them come up and put their arms around me.

A girlfriend of mine announced her daughter was having a baby. I told her, “when you see that child, your life will be changed forever.”

After her grandchild was born she came to me and said, “You were right. It is the most wonderful, blessed feeling in the world.” “All my problems go away when I hold this baby.”

The ability of these children to change your mood, your world, your life is absolutely astonishing. Watch grandparents walk with their grandchildren or push them in the carriages and you can’t miss the happiness and pride on their faces.

In a world, right now, that is full of chaos and stress how wonderful to have something that can bring joy, love and hope to us. The touch of a grandchild is precious love.

The post A Grandchild’s Touch appeared first on The Penny Friends.

The definition of a Guardian Angel is an angel who protects and guides a particular town, region or person.  The belief that God sends a spirit to watch every individual was common in Ancient Greek philosophy.

For centuries Christians celebrated the feast of St. Michael. A special feast of the Guardian Angels was introduced in Austria, Spain and Portugal in the 15th-16th centuries.

Frank Capra in his movie It’s a Wonderful Life featured Clarence (Henry Travers) as George Bailey’s (Jimmy Stewart) Guardian Angel.

You may or may not believe in angels as spirits.  But what if a human being did something heroic to help you or actually saved your life.

Could this person have been your “human” Guardian Angel?  Angels may appear to us in many different shapes, forms and disguises.

My son was in a horrific car accident.  It was late at night.  He was thrown from his car and was lying on a major highway.

Two girls, driving down the same road behind him, observed the situation. They immediately turned their car sideways, protecting my son from being run over by on coming traffic.

These girls helped bring him to the side of the road and waited with him until the ambulance arrived.

They disappeared without my son ever being able to find out their names and thank them.

Was it coincidence? Maybe. Were they kind souls? Absolutely. Were they “human” Guardian Angels?

My son and I truly believe they were his Guardian Angels sent to save his life that night.

Have you had an experience where you have felt that a human being has been a guardian angel for you or someone you know? Please share this with us.

The post Angel’s of the Night appeared first on The Penny Friends.

They visit here. I visit there. It seems we say goodbye over and over again.  And the goodbyes are always associated with pain.

It has been eleven years since my son moved to another country.  During that time, a daughter-in-law and three grandchildren have joined our family.

Their visits are wonderful as the whole family gets time to be together.  The grandchildren get to know each other, brothers and sister reunite and of course, me, as the Mom, is in my glory.

When they leave, I walk around the house picking up and putting things back in place.

The air still holds their presence. I can see them on the floor, the sofa, and running around.  As I walk through the empty rooms of the house, an unending flow of tears accompanies me.

I have wonderful memories of their visit, with pictures to remind me of all we have done. However, their absence is an as aching as the amputee who feels pain in the limb which is no longer there.

The house has the echo of silence and loneliness where it was once full of noise and love.  Mentally, I hug them in my arms and see their faces, reliving our time together.

I know one can say goodbye to your family and put miles between you.  However, we carry them in our hearts and soul because we do not just live in a world but a world lives within us.

Since so many of us have family that live far away, we would like to hear from you about your story and how you feel and deal with this situation. Please share.

The post The Goodbye appeared first on The Penny Friends.

It is always such a joy for me to have my grandchilden.  Today he kept me particularly busy.  We went upstairs to get something.  As we stood at the top of the stairs he said “I jump.”  He didn’t, but my heart almost jumped out of me.

Earlier we had gone to the grocery store.  As I was picking him up and putting him in the shopping cart, I guess I made a groan.  He looked at me and said, “I too heavy.”

It made me laugh, thinking, only a two year old little boy could say without a flinch that he was too heavy.  All of us women say it with such despondency.

Nap time arrived, I got his bottle and showed it to him.  He knows the drill, so he was on his way into the bedroom when a strange thing happened. He did not go into the bedroom but he went into my office and walked up to my rocking chair.

We have not cuddled, with him having a bottle in my arms, since he was a baby.  What a joy I felt getting into the chair, him lying on my lap, and me watching him drink his bottle.

As the milk was emptying into his tummy his eyes were blinking” the soon my eyes will be closed” blinking look. Sure enough the bottle feel from his mouth and his eyes were closed.

I stared at his curly blonde hair and rosy cheeks and felt pure love in my heart. Carefully, I placed my check on his and could feel the warmth of his check against mine.  His face looked like that of a precious, innocent angel.  I wondered what he would look like when is about ten years old.

But,  my thoughts quickly went back to the moment. I wanted to hold on to it and cherish it forever. I wanted to put it in my memory bank to have forever.  And when  times are not so peaceful and loving, I can bring back this moment, and remember this feeling of peace and love and joy.

The post The Love of a Grandmother appeared first on The Penny Friends.

My granddaughter was all excited about having company and was not too interested in eating her dinner. She was talking about everything under the son and there was no time for her to eat. She just wanted to tell us her thoughts.

Watching her, I thought of how innocent she is and how wonderful to watch this little girl be so involved in life.

She started moving around and fell off her chair. It was obvious to all of us that the only thing that was hurt was her feelings. She started crying and I removed her from under the table.

We went over to the rocking chair and I held her in my arms. We rocked back and forth and I whispered in her ear how much her “Nana loves you.” This went on for awhile. Then she was off on another venture, running to her next project.

For a few minutes, our hearts were one, but those tender few minutes will last for my lifetime.

The post Heartbeat to Heartbeat appeared first on The Penny Friends.

My father was remarrying. He was eighty-two years old. I had gone into his room to ask him for a magazine he had. Handing me the magazine, he dropped the bomb of a question about Viagra.

“Geez, Dad, that is a little bit more information than I need to know about your life.”

Embarrassed, I took the magazine and left the room. Looking back, I could have been kinder to the poor man. He was treading on a new life and needed some support. However, the subject was such a shock to me, coming from my father, I did not know how to handle it.

My mother had been deceased for a few years and my dad met his new wife-to-be, at of all places, a bereavement group. My siblings and I had mixed feelings about this marriage.

Of course, our loyalties were to my mother. Dad was desolate without my mom. He had found some happiness with another woman and we were all having some difficulty accepting it.

I am sorry , I cannot say that, at first, I was the kindest person to her. In fact, I was probably rather distant. My attachment to my mother was so strong for so many years of my life; I had a difficult time seeing my dad with another woman.

In becoming conscious of how upset I was about my Dad remarrying, I can only feel complete empathy for my children who had to live through my two divorces.

How terrible it must have been for them. In writing this, I feel appalled at what they must have gone through mentally and emotionally.

Marriages do not have the solidity they had in my parent’s day. However, that does not make it any easier on these children of divorce.

When you are the person going through the divorce, the trauma is so great to your psyche, it is difficult, if not close to impossible, to give your children all the support they need. The family is torn apart, as is everyone’s emotional well-being.

My girlfriends were there to ease the way for me. They supported me through all the steps of anger, grief, despair and finally some sense of normalcy. When I was too upset to think, my friends were there to think for me.

I am afraid to look too deeply into whether or not I did enough for my children. I hope they had their friends helping them as I did.

It is upsetting for me to think that my children and grandchildren are growing up now in a world, which I believe to be very sad. All the content matter of music, movies and videos today are preoccupied with sex, violence, betrayal and murder. Nothing is held sacred.

The economy has deluded us. We are left searching around for some form of secure place to dwell in. It may really have been “the good old days” in my childhood, when families were together and provided a safe haven. A time when marriages stayed in tact and our country was respected by the entire world.

The post When a Parent Remaries appeared first on The Penny Friends.

My daughter exclaimed to me with panic on her face and tears falling onto her hospital gown. She just had her first child and the children’s doctor for special care took Shannon away from her and put her in an incubator.

I held my daughter in my arms, trying to hold back my own tears of the frightening unknown of what was happening. When you see your children hurting your heart breaks as if a chisel has gone through it. We all waited a long time for this child and we put all our positive energy into willing her to be well. Today, she is a bright, active and, of course, adorable little girl.

As I think back on this incident, my mind wanders and wonders when the moment in time when my daughter became my friend was? It is such a gradual occurrence one cannot put a date on it.

Through having a daughter, a woman finds herself with an infant, a little girl, a teenager, a young woman and all of a sudden a person who turns into a friend.

Daughters are harder on their mothers than sons are. Being of the same gender, daughters have to fight more for their identities than sons do. Sometimes, mother and daughter relationships are like experiencing an earthquake with deep, unearthed feelings surfacing. Sometimes, although they are separate, they become one, with the same blood running through their veins.

I believe mothers and daughters become closest, when daughters become mothers. Seeing my daughter hold her own child brings a feeling of joy for the present and the hope and promise of the future. I smile to myself, knowing that my daughter will learn about patience, love and forgiveness, as her own daughter will stretch her tolerance with the moody attitude of a teenage girl.

The post My Daughter, My Friend appeared first on The Penny Friends.

My first message was from August 5, 2009 and it was from my Dad. This does not sound like such a rare thing, except for the fact that my Dad died on August 5, 2010. When I first heard Aug. 5th and then my Dad’s voice, I almost freaked out. Then it hit me that the year was 2008. How much of a coincidence is that?

I started to listen to the rest of the messages and there were so many of them from my Dad. It really was a walk through the last two years of my father’s life. His voice was so strong in 2008. I could hear the decline as the years went on. The best for me was I have a “HAPPY NEW YEAR” message from my Dad for 2010. That is the last New Year’s message I will ever have from him and how lucky and honored I am to be able to hear him say that.

The little expressions my Dad would always say, like “Happy Day,” “This is the Big Boss” and “How do you do” were all recorded. I am so joyful and grateful to have these messages. I rewarded myself, instead of reprimanding myself, for not deleting them. How sad it is now that most of the younger generation “texts.” Having a text from my father would be nice to have, of course, but not quite as special as hearing him say “Love you, Babe.”

The post Telephone Messages appeared first on The Penny Friends.