Books for holidays

November 30th, 2011 by Regina Brett

A book is the perfect gift.

 

It fits in a stocking. It's easy to wrap. You can even cheat and read it before you give it. Just don't spill any coffee on it.

 

How do you decide which book to give everyone on your gift list?

 

Karen Long, the Plain Dealer's book editor, knows how to read people. She'll share her tips tonight at 7 p.m. on "The Regina Brett Show" on WKSU 89.7 FM.

We'll also have Liz Murphy, owner of The Learned Owl bookshop in Hudson and Suzanne DeGaetano owner of Mac's Backs in Cleveland Heights.

 

Call in with your comment or questions: 888-957-8897 or email regina@wksu.org

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The Best Thanksgiving

November 23rd, 2011 by Regina Brett

The story I love to tell most happened on Thanksgiving Day.

 

Ten years ago, I invited a friend to share Thanksgiving dinner with us. Sharon was pregnant, and not married...in the same situation I had been in at age 21. The morning of Thanksgiving, she called and asked if she could bring her brother to join us.

My parents always taught us to make room for more at the table. We had 11 children, but my parents always welcomed anyone who needed a home for the holidays.

 

One year, I brought a co-worker. Thrity's family lived in India.

 

One year, my brother brought a college friend. Eduardo's family lived in Costa Rica.

 

One year, my sister invited a friend whose family didn't celebrate holidays. So of course I said yes to Sharon.

On Thanksgiving Day, I opened the door to Sharon and met her brother, James, a handsome Irishman with stunning blue eyes.

Three years later, my daughter married him.

This year we'll welcome another person to the table. My new grand baby, Ainsley, who has the same blue eyes as her daddy and big brother, Asher. They'll sit near their aunt and cousin, and we'll all give thanks for that Thanksgiving Day.

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How to be Happy

November 16th, 2011 by Regina Brett

How can you be happy?

 

It's less about what happens to you and more about how you respond to whatever happens to you.

 

Tonight at 7 p.m. on "The Regina Brett Show" we're having a live studio audience with Giving Thanks as the topic.

 

Jim Smith, who calls himself "The Executive Happiness Coach," joins us. He wrote the book, "Happiness at the Speed of Life."

 

He offers great tips:

 

Stop rubbernecking and comparing your life to everyone else.

 

Surround yourself with happy people.

 

Document your blessings.

 

Be a tourist in your own life and see it from new perspectives.

 

Be positively selfish. 

What does that mean? I'm not sure, but I'll ask him tonight. Tune in to 89.7 FM WKSU or listen later by podcast.

We'll also have Karen DeLuca, author of "Living Your Life in Gratitude." She has a whole list of tips on bringing more joy into life. 

 

A foster mom who took in hundreds of children will share how to spread that joy around. 

 

You can call in and share what you're most grateful for: 888-957-8897 or email regina@wksu.org

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Veterans Day

November 11th, 2011 by Regina Brett

If only we had known what to ask what we might have learned.

 

We were surrounded by veterans growing up. Every uncle served, and most of them in the war.

 

My mom's brother lied about his age and joined the Army when he was 16. He ended up in a German prisoner of war camp for three years. He lost part of his hearing from one beating. When he came to visit, we were kids raised on "Hogan's Heroes" and "F Troop." We didn't know much about real war. We thought it was cool to ask, "How many Germans did you kill?" Uncle Chuck, who had a loud hearty laugh, would get quiet, and just soflty say, "War isn't like you see on TV."

 

Then there was mom's brother Michael. The quiet man. He never spoke of war. He was one of the original Rangers. Darby's Rangers. They trained in secret and my mom didn't know where he was through most of the war, until the day the telegram came that he was being sent home. He had contracted malaria and nearly died.

 

My dad flew more than 30 missions as a tail gunner. I never quite knew what that meant until one day he took us to a tiny airport in Akron where they displayed old war planes. How in the world did my dad, all 6' 2" of him, squeeze into the back of that tiny plane? 

 

All my dad's pictures of the war show a row of tail gunners, most of them short guys, then that tall, thin drink of water, my dad, always a foot taller. We found out he asked to be a tail gunner so he could send more money back home to his poor family. The job was dangerous so it paid more.

 

My uncle Chuck, my Uncle Mike, my dad, they're all gone.

 

But other veterans are among us. Today, on the 11 hour of the 11 day of the 11 month, let us pause and give thanks for every single one of them. For guys who gave up the lives they planned for the lives they ended up living once they came back. For guys who still wake with shakes and terror from the jungles of Vietnam. For guys who left a part of their soul in Korea, Iraq,  Afghanistan. For the forgotten women who have served for decades.

 

Veterans who are now greeters at Wal Mart, grocery store baggers trying to earn a buck, homeless drifters whose inner demons can't be beat. Veterans who are now simply grandpa and grandma, mom and dad, the guy next door, the math teacher, the usher at church.

 

Pray for them all. Take the time to learn their stories, and if they don't want to share their stories, pray for them even harder.

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Mindful eating

November 9th, 2011 by Regina Brett

These six words could change your life, or at least your waistline.

 

"Eat food with purpose, on purpose."

 

That's the motto of Dr. Susan Albers, a psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic, who specializes in eating issues. She is the author of five books about Mindful Eating, the most recent being “But I Deserve This Chocolate:  the 50 most common diet-derailing excuses and how to outwit them."

 

She's joining us tonight at 7 on "The Regina Brett Show" on WKSU 89.7 FM to talk about mindful eating.

 

With the holiday treats just around the corner, we thought it would be good to be prepared.

 

 

We also have Sue Clarahan, a licensed and registered dietitian with a degree in Food and Nutrition. She owns Clarahan Consulting: Making Nutrition Sensible and Practical and helps clients find a balance and positive relationship with food and one’s body. Her personal motto is “great living through good eating!”

 

Ann Weinzimmer, an attorney with Jones Day in Cleveland, is chairperson of the junior advisory board at Westside Ecumenical Ministries (WSEM). She'll talk about the Food Stamp Challenge, a 7-day commitment that runs from Nov. 11-17 where people try to live on live on $31.04 a week, the average food stamp allocation for an individual.

 

Join the conversation. Call during the show: 888-957-8897 or email: regina@wksu.org.

 

 

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Why we write

November 6th, 2011 by Regina Brett

So I'm sitting at the Buckeye Book Fair in Wooster, Ohio, all day yesterday surrounded by 100 other authors selling and signing their books. I arrived at 9 a.m. and stayed til it ended at 4 p.m.

 

Every so often an author came up to me and asked, "So how are you doing today? Has it been a successful day for you?"  I think they wanted to know, "So how many books have you sold?" 

 

For me, it's not a numbers game. It's sort of like anyone who makes it to the Big Leagues: you're just so grateful to be standing at home plate, you want to savor being there, not worry about your batting average.

 

Why do we write? For moments like this: A woman came up to my table and said she was sick last year at Thanksgiving and was all alone, but she really wasn't alone. "I had your book with me and read it all day," she said, as tears streamed down her face.

 

Wow. You think, It doesn't get better than that.

 

And then it does.

 

You open your email and read this from Jean K.:

 

"Just thought you might like to know.  I went to the funeral last week of a dear friend.  Her daughter spoke and relayed that before she died her mother gave her and her sisters a copy of your book 'God Never Blinks.'  As an ending to the eulogy she quoted the verse that ends in 'Be'.  It was touching."

 

She's referring to this, which always brings me peace:

Be still and know that I am God.

Be still and know that I am.

Be still and know.

Be still.

Be.

                                               

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Sports lessons

November 3rd, 2011 by Regina Brett

Baseball season is over, but this memory that Andy emailed to me remains:

 

"My 14-year-old son and I were watching the Rangers play the Yankees when the Rangers' manager strode to the mound and asked the struggling rookie pitcher for the ball.

 

Looking disappointed, the young pitcher flipped the ball in the air and into the hand of manager Ron Washington. What we saw next was a class reaction to this Big No-No.

 

The manager gently grabbed the pitcher's arm and placed the ball back into his palm and politely, but firmly, told the rookie to "hand" him the ball.

 

I was very touched by Mr. Washington's way of getting his point across without dressing down the pitcher.

 

You don't see much of that in baseball anymore. I'm glad my son witnessed Ron Washington's graceful reaction to the frustrated rookie pitcher.

 

He was on his way to becoming a big league pitcher that day."

 

Thanks for sharing that. What makes us Big League players in the game of life are the small, powerful lessons like that.

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