When we think about plunging into nature, most of us conjure up images of hiking in bucolic forests, paddling up tranquil rivers, and splashing in remote lakes. But right smack in our own backyards are some hidden gems, often overlooked because of their urban surroundings laced with high rises, barren blacktop, and cold cement. Nature lover Scott […]
This I Believe
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This I Believe New England – Caretakers
Witnessing the slow and jagged cognitive decline of a loved one is among life’s greatest challenges. Encounters that were once so smooth and carefree are fraught with anxiety, frustration, and uncertainty, sometimes with sporadic moments of levity and ease. For caretakers, there’s often the drip, drip, drip of compassion-filled, yet relentless and often taxing caregiving, perhaps accompanied […]
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This I Believe New England – Motherhood
Parenting, as many of us know, is chronically, relentlessly complex. Sure, there are those wonderful highs that don’t require any sort of hyperbole: first words, first steps, deep emotional connection, the child who says thank you and truly means it. And, then, there’s the other stuff that’s sometimes part of the package: the indescribable exhaustion during infancy, […]
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This I Believe New England – Resilience of Mothers
Parenting, as many of us know, is chronically, relentlessly complex. Sure, there are those wonderful highs that don’t require any sort of hyperbole: first words, first steps, deep emotional connection, the child who says thank you and truly means it. And, then, there’s the other stuff that’s sometimes part of the package: the indescribable exhaustion during infancy, […]
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This I Believe New England – Grounded
Those of us of a certain age take in lots of scenery when we look at our lives in the rearview mirror. We’ve spent decades – and decades – navigating life’s inevitable twists and turns, embracing those exhilarating highs and doing our best to cope with life’s painful lows. If we’re fortunate, we learn from the lessons […]
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This I Believe New England – Revision
In Plato’s Apology, Socrates asserts that the unexamined life is not worth living. While that may be a bit of an overstatement, many of us have learned during the course of our lives that self-examination that has real depth is a virtue that pays impressive dividends. We understand ourselves better, gain genuine insight, and, one […]
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This I Believe New England – Rhode Island Free Clinic
Health care is such a loaded and complicated topic. All of us are concerned about access to primary care physicians and specialists when our bodies don’t behave the way we want. The most fortunate among us have a doctor we can call when we need one. But many in our community fall between the proverbial cracks and […]
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This I Believe New England – Strength From Trauma
No one wants trauma in their lives. We don’t want a spouse to die suddenly. We don’t want cancer diagnoses. We don’t want to be the victim of an armed robbery or a serious car accident. Yet, we know that life is filled with perils, and throughout our journey some are likely to come our way, no matter our […]
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This I Believe New England – Life to the Fullest
All of us have spent time contemplating death—perhaps our own, perhaps the death of those we love. Throughout history, scholars, poets, philosophers, and theologians have opined about death—its mystery, its elusiveness, its ineffability. We’ve heard from Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Aristotle, Edgar Allan Poe, and countless others. Today we hear from 13-year-old Ava Giardino. Ava Giardino is a student […]
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This I Believe New England – Neighbors
Life in Rhode Island and south coast Massachusetts communities is so full of texture, replete with culture, ethnic diversity, topography, and cuisine that are so unique to the region. No place is perfect, of course, but so many of us extol the virtues of the lives we lead in this little corner of the world. Some of […]
