Two things you're most grateful for

(A photo of us from our recent family vacation to Fiji.)

At the end of each Yoga practice when our instructor asks us to think about two things in our lives we're the most grateful for - it's an easy one for me - it's always my husband and our daughter.

They bring me the most love and happiness I've ever experienced in my life.

They're both traveling to Germany now to be with U.'s terminally ill mother to pay their last respects.

Before leaving U. asked me what I would be doing with all my time. We both looked at each other and I really didn't want to say it -but we both knew the answer. U. said to me, "Don't work too much okay? Make some time for yourself." I realized that if it wasn't for my family - I would be a chronic workaholic.

Not only are they the best and most cherished things in my life, but I also realized they keep me balanced and human.

I love them very much (and miss them already) and wish them a safe journey (there and back to me).

Happy Mother's Day 2008!

This was the 1st mother's day that my daughter was able to tell me, "Happy Mother's Day!" That was the best present this year. She also made me a drawing, and a cool arts & crafts rose at preschool.

U. also presented me with a new pink nano iPod (i can't get over how tiny and powerful it is- it fits into the palm of my hand, but it's got more features and even more powerful than my old iPod - I have the album covers I can choose from which is super sweet). But here's the kicker - U. downloaded songs from all the bands at Coachella this year that I liked. How thoughtful is that?! So here I am listening to The Verve on my iPod. (Which song you ask? The song, "The Drugs Don't Work." A beautiful song that we saw them perform at Coachella.)

Just got back from Mother's Day brunch with the fam at House of Blues in Hollywood. I finally got to see & experience their Sunday Gospel performance for the first time. What a treat!

No preaching - just guitar and singing (the performers dressed in soulful, flamboyant costumes)- and pointing out that everyone has something to be thankful for - even just waking up this morning. Hallelujah to that! We take a lot for granted don't we? A few volunteers stood up and said what they were thankful for and sang "Thank you!" into the microphone. I looked over at my devoted husband, and our beautiful angel of a daughter we created together, who is our pride and joy (and gives us both gray hairs) - and my heart swelled.

I have so much to be thankful for. I am thankful for the privilege of everyday that my husband and daughter are a part of my life and knowing their love. I am thankful to experience this crazy whirlwind of a journey called parenthood with a wonderful partner. I am thankful to be a mother.

Happy Mother's day!

"Real Love" for my Love

Regina Spektor performs a cover of John Lennon's "Real Love".

You can find the recorded version on John Lennon tribute album Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur.

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Still thinking about our conversation last night...what a lovely thought - we'll never be alone because a part of us will always be together.

It brings tears to my eyes...listening to this beautiful song and thinking of you.

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All my little plans and schemes
Lost like some forgotten dream
Seems like all I really was doing
Was waiting for you

All the little girls and boys
Playing with their little toys
Seems like all they really were doing
Was waiting for love

Don't need to be alone
No need to be alone

It's real love
It's real, yes it's real love
It's real

From this moment on I know
Exactly where my life will go
Seems that all I really was doing
Was waiting for love

Don't need to be afraid
No need to be afraid

It's real love
It's real, yes it's real love
It's real

Thought I'd been in love before,
But in my heart I wanted more
Seems like all I really was doing
Was waiting for you

Don't need to be alone
No need to be alone

It's real love
Yes it's real, yes it's real love
It's real, yes it's real love...

Polish man wakes up to new world after 19 years in coma

Another case of life imitating art:

Today's story about a Polish man who awoke from after 19 years of being in a coma, to a new democratic Poland after the fall of Communism, is reminiscent of the German movie Good Bye Lenin!

In Good Bye Lenin! the story takes place in 1990, after the Wall has come down, and to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma; her son must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
From the BBC News, Brisbane Times, & CNN.com

A Polish man who spent 19 years in a coma has woken up and will now have to adapt to a country where the communists are no longer in power.

Railwayman Jan Grzebski fell into a coma after he was hit by a train in 1988, the private channel Polsat said.

In an interview, Grzebski (now 65 years old) said that he owed his survival to his wife, Gertruda. "She's the one who always took care of me. She saved my life," he said.

"For 19 years Mrs Grzebska did the job of an experienced intensive care team, changing her comatose husband's position every hour to prevent bed-sore infections," said Grzebski's doctor - Dr. Boguslaw Poniatowski.

Grzebski was a father of four at the time of the accident. He is now making the acquaintance of 11 grandchildren.

Doctors had not expected Grzebski to survive, let alone emerge from the coma.

"I cried a lot, and I prayed a lot. Those who came to see us kept asking: 'When is he going to die?' But he's not dead," said Getruda.

Grzebski said he vaguely recalled the family gatherings he was taken to while in a coma and his wife and children trying to communicate with him.

Poland's communist regime was still clinging onto power when Grzebski had his accident, only losing its grip the following year, in 1989.

"When I went into a coma there was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was rationed and huge petrol lines were everywhere," said Grzebski, describing his recollections of the communist system's economic collapse."

On the brash neon-lit streets of new European Union member Poland, the period seems a distant memory.

"Now I see people on the streets with cell phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin."

"What amazes me today is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning. I've got nothing to complain about," said Grzebski.