On my unmade bed in my bedroom, I opened a shoebox that hasn't been opened in a very long time. Occasionally, I lift its lid and haphazardly toss something inside, but today I took it out of its drawer and carefully sorted all of its contents. One of  my favorite singers  of all time is Randy Travis and I love his song  "The Box."  If you desire, you may take a peek inside mine. You'll find... ~Two paper umbrellas from Hawaii, when I flew out there to meet my sister’s first  baby . ~A book of matches from Lee’s Chicken, my very first professional piano  gig . I played there from April 2001 to December 2005. It says in very 1970s print, " Live music, favorite beverages, dress comfortable, bring the kids. " ~All the Playbills from every Broadway show I’ve seen. ~Silk lilac flowers that were in  my wedding  bouquet, because real lilacs are out of season in July. ~An old PX bag filled with dozens of military coins, given to me by Colonels and G...

Remember this video  when my dog Joy, discovered that the tree near our parking lot is the perfect circumference to always see the end of her leash, but never catch it? Every time we go outside, she silently pleads with those large, brown eyes to walk to her favorite tree and chase her leash for a while. I usually let her. But as a result of the 5th snow storm in 4 weeks, this is what her beloved tree looks like now. Her little heart broke when she realized she couldn't make her way to the base of the trunk. She tried with all her might, but the snow just swallowed her up. I admire her persistence, her resilience, and as we kept walking down the sidewalk, her ingenuity when she spotted this telephone pole. Her brown eyes once again lit up with excitement, as she discovered, "This'll do." (Notice, she managed to catch her pink leash this time!) When God covers a tree with snow, somewhere He frees up a telephone pole.

"The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your  state of mind." -Wayne Dyer When we moved from our beautiful, North Carolina, 4-bedroom home (with 2 car garage, huge backyard, and swimming pool...sniffle), into our New Jersey, teeny weeny, 2-bedroom apartment where all 3 closets equal the space of 1 regular sized closet, I knew we would have to make a lot of changes in order to fit. In preparation of the move, we had a massive garage sale and emptied a large portion of our "stuff." When we pulled up in a U-haul to this old, brick, 2nd floor apartment (with a staircase so narrow I have a hard time carrying a laundry basket through), I realized there was even less space than I anticipated. The kitchen was no bigger than a hallway. And the second "bedroom" was barely enough to cram my keyboard and desk into. Undeterred, we made the best of it and excitedly unpacked our belongings, anticipating our new life and careers in Northern New Jer...

I'm not afraid of ghosts. I'm usually up for a good scary movie or X-Files re-runs in the dark. But lately, I wonder if they're seeking me out. And at the risk of sounding like a cheesy cable special about experiencing an unexplained "presence," I decided to collect and present my latest proof. My husband works at Thomas Edison's old house. He works nights usually. Some evenings when I get off work, the timing works out so I can bring him supper. The Park is completely deserted of visitors at this hour; my husband, the solitary keeper of these old grounds. And we eat our simple dinner on the same property where the great inventor, Thomas Edison himself, lived, worked...and died. Just below us sits the Model-T that Henry Ford gave to Edison as a gift. Outside in the cold winter air, 6 deer sit below an old, bare tree and suddenly jerk to their feet and bound into the nearby black woods...as if spooked by something invisible and inaudible. We eat our slices fro...

I took my two nephews for a walk on the frozen pond near their grandparents house. This was truly amazing for them. They tentatively touched the ice with their feet before venturing out all the way. When they finally did, it was all but impossible to take their eyes off the ground. Ethan, 4 years old, looked very hard to see if fish were swimming underneath the odd, clear surface. And Zach, 2 years old, ran back and forth across the pond, chasing the 2 dogs that were playing fetch on the ice.  Suddenly, I heard Ethan's voice proclaim in excitement, "Lisabiff! Look what I found!" I was just throwing a stick for the dogs and asked him what it was. "A frozen rainbow!" was his matter-of-fact reply as he hunched close to the ice in awe. I walked over to him, secretly wondering what on earth he could have possibly found that looked like a frozen rainbow. It turns out, that's exactly what it was. I pulled out the camera and snapped a photo of Ethan's amazing ...

There are times when it just feels like nothing is right. When all the weight of the universe is beating down on me and I can’t seem to find anything positive, despite the obvious blessings that so abundantly surround me. They say that the countless wonderful things in life are forgotten in an instant as soon as one negative thing happens. Maybe that’s why God gave us memories. They’re like comfort food, like a blanket in the cold, or sometimes like medicine. You keep them stored and then pull one out when you need it. But I think that too is a choice. Happiness is an effort. And that’s kind of what this daily blog is about . Today, I was encouraged by a long forgotten memory, when I watched a young teenager exit the passenger side of a car. Her father was dropping her off for ballet class. She simply said, “See you after class, dad. Love you.” Suddenly, who knows why these ancient thoughts appear after a decade or more of absence (I suppose because I needed it today), but I was flo...

Well today has been quite a day. I couldn't sleep last night, so at 12:30 am, I got out of bed and went to my music room. I decided to begin working on some instrumental tracks for the  musical I'm playing for . This way, the cast will have a feel for what a full band will sound like, rather than just the piano they're dealing with now.  Fifteen hours later, I looked up from the computer and realized, it's 3 in the afternoon and I'm hungry. I was so focused, that I hadn't noticed the day is nearly gone. I recorded 13 instrumental tracks for the musical "Touch," to be performed this February at the 13th Street Repertory Company in New York City.   I decided to record my own voice on one of the shorter tracks so you all could hear what I've been working so diligently on. This is not an original song of mine, nor am I a member of the performing cast. I'm only helping with the music.  And now that my tasks are complete, I can relax for a few hou...