RANDOM

Always a devoted Diana fan, I enjoyed hearing the interview that Matt Lauer conducted with William and Harry. I felt a strong connection with her since we were about the same age and both had two boys. Both of us married men who were quite a bit older than we were and also shared some of the same struggles/issues in our marriages. I followed the events of her life with great interest and great empathy. I believe Princess Diana would be very proud of her boys and pleased at how "normal" they have turned out. She was a fun mom and did a lot of cool things with her kids and I could always relate to that.Being a mom was her top priority and I am in alignment with that core value also. The concert William and Harry put together to honor her life turned out fantastic! Hard to beat Duran Duran and Rod Stewart was still an incredible show-stopper.After all these years, Tom Jones remains the consummate gentleman. Very touching that Diana's sons would come up with this for her. It's hard to believe she has been gone 10 years.

I saw two movies last weekend that I thought were worth the time to watch: Blood Diamond and Casino Royale. I have always loved James Bond movies-have seen them all- and they did this classic justice in the remake! Blood Diamond was disturbing, but then many things that are based on true-life situations are disturbing! I would never have understood what was meant by "conflict diamonds" if I hadn't seen this movie.

I also read a good book last week. It was Beach Road by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge. This is the first one of his books I've read and now I'm hooked! I love a good surprise ending and this story ended in a way that makes you think about details that occurred earlier in the book.His chapters are short which make it an easy read for me since I can knock out a chapter or two between my appointments at work.Now I'm reading Dark Harbor by Stuart Woods-one of my favorite authors. If you've never read any of his books, they are an engaging but easy read also.

According to the Today show, the five most important qualities for a successful marriage:

1. Faithfulness.
2. Satisfying Sex.
3. Help with household chores.
4. Adequate income.
5. Good housing.

I was talking to one of my clients after the weekend. We both were commenting on the fact that it is the simple pleasures in life that make the days feel wonderful to us. It's not having more money or more things, but having the time to spend doing things that bring us joy and time for our relationships with the people we care about.

Another conversation I had with at least 3 other people at multiple times this past week revolved around the difficulty of setting and maintaining healthy boundaries in our relationships. It seems as though the closer the relationship, the tougher this becomes. There is often a dilemma between "killing people off", symbolically of course, by cutting off all communication and contact, or, at the other extreme, lying down and being a doormat to keep a relationship intact at the expense of your own self-worth. Healthy relatedness lies somewhere in the middle. Some people would rather abandon a relationship than to have to be accountable for how they treat others/allow others to treat them. We train people how to treat us by what we are willing to tolerate. Retraining is a real bummer!