About Pat

Here is a place where you can come to get a lift for the day, perhaps, a little insight to carry you through onto the next adventure of your life. A place where I’ll share a story, perhaps a thought and some reflections and we’ll meet somewhere in the middle. I like to think of it as a gathering around the kitchen table late at night when everything is still and the world has quieted down to rest. Occupation: Writer, blogger, wife, mother, grandmother, sister, daughter and one learning and sharing stories in my life. Location: Bailey, CO Introduction: 2007 Plain Talk and Ordinary Wisdom came out of Wisdom for the Ages, which was born in the corporate world where I gave workshops and facilitated talking-stick discussion groups. When my employer closed their site in 2002 and relocated back East, I took it outside corporate giving presentations as a speaker at Kiwanis, Mile High Sales Professionals, CWEE (Center for Work, Education and Employment) and Business Honoring Spirituality meetings. I also led weekly discussion groups at Morningstar Assisted Living Center. I am passionate about creating a safe environment where people can put aside their differences, share their experiences and wisdom without being right or wrong and benefit from truly listening to one another. It all started with inspiration from a quote from Ram Dass in his book, "Still Here": ….”when there is true surrender and service between people, the roles of helper and helped and the boundaries between those in power and those who are powerless begin to dissolve.”

I Had A Dream

katherine strickland via Compfight

I woke up this morning on a working adventure and found myself in Scotland. It was so real that it stayed with me throughout the day. It made me think of this poem, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, I came across several years ago and I wondered, “What if. . . .”  Continue reading

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Courage And The New Year

Redes

Redes – by Kalliop3 Courtesy of Compfight and Flicker at https://www.flickr.com/photos/19915365@N00/5625229159/

Creative Commons License Kalliop3 via Compfight

If you could tag the New Year, what word would you use?  Words like peace, hope, prosperity would be the natural choices I might choose. But, I didn’t have a choice.

Courage popped into my head and was something I couldn’t shake. The word seemed to have chosen me and have a life of its own. I have a strong feeling that I am being challenged on a different level. Would I accept the challenge, open to change, and be willing to face my fears? “Yes”, I say with a bit of trepidation Continue reading

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Happy New Year and a Wonderful Life

Happy New Year

Happy New Year – © PinkWhen Courtesy MSN Clipart

I’m not in a crisis, nor do I have an angel called Clarence calling on me; but, I can say with no uncertainty that it’s been a wonderful life, with what I’ve experienced so far.

Now, on the eve of another New Year and just yesterday celebrating 49 years of marriage with hubby, I’ve been doing my fair share of reflecting. Not only for 2015 but through all the years that have gone before.

If you read any of my stories, you’ll know that it hasn’t been all peaches and cream. There have been many challenges along the way. But, you know, I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. It’s the challenges that tap into the depth of my soul and give me a feeling I can take with me out in the world.  Continue reading

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The Season of Love and Giving

christmas-star-from-msn-clipart

Christmas Star © MSN Clipart

For Christians all over the world, the season of Christmas is upon us. It’s a holy time when we’re reminded of the birth of Christ, as God’s gift to the world. We celebrate it in many ways, as more of the spirit of love comes alive when we get together and give. I can see it in the acts of kindness, the glee and laughter of a child or a twinkle in the eye of a giver in anticipation of the opening of a gift.

Christmas! What makes it so magical compared to the rest of the year. It’s like the innocence of the child within me is born and, once again, I remember believing and looking for something beyond my imagination.  Continue reading

A Grateful World Is a Happy World

David Steindl-Rast It is not happiness that makes us grateful, it is gratefulness that makes us happyCreative Commons License BK via Compfight

As Thanksgiving approaches, I have to admit I’m struggling with gratitude. My emotions are mixed and my heart is conflicted with unrest from the recent Paris and Mali shootings and the rants of hate.

It’s hard to put everything into perspective and settle down to celebrate with a quiet dinner and give thanks with so much going on in the world. I will, not because of tradition, but because it’s what is so desperately needed and there is so much for which I’ve been blessed.  Continue reading

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