Archive for Gratitude – Page 5

Graduation: dinner with my three husbands

(Photo:  Star and I today.  Her 1996 college graduation dinner was memorable.) A graduation poses challenges for the multi-wedded.  I’ve been married three times, odd for a spirituality columnist to admit, but guess what?  I’m an optimist. Experience decrees that when breaking bread with exes, stay positive. Star, my daughter, graduated from college in 1996, […]

A Jewish temple rises in Milton

At Congregation Beth Shalom of the Blue Hills I sit by the gallery’s fireplace with Lila Rosenbaum, 86. Sunshine warms our backs from the wall-high windows and she speaks of finally “having a home.” The 9,500 square foot temple is tucked to the side of an open field by a stand of old growth trees […]

Boston firefighter loses everything, finds time and talent

When Mike Foley was a child and lost something, his mother would say, “It’s just stuff.”  However, when he lost a marriage, a job, and three generations’ worth of family heirlooms, it’s not easy.  Yet at age 69, the former lieutenant with the Boston Fire Department is not bitter. “I’m not in charge, I leave […]

Boston Firefighter: God’s got my back

(Special thanks to Bill Noonan for allowing the use of his photos of January 12, 2016 fire. http://www.billnoonanfirefotos.com Today when Boston firefighter Larry Smith, a 27-year veteran, rushes into burning buildings, his courage is fueled by faith. Twenty-two years ago he was blinded in a raging house fire. During that ordeal he discovered only God could […]

The Gifts We Don’t Return

This month a deluge of holiday gifts are returned to stores. It’s hard to give the perfect gift, and almost as hard to remember getting one. Yet Patricia Kachinsky of Milton still talks about what she received years ago.  Back then she told her four young daughters, “I want a memory of something your father […]