Up, Up and Away!

This is for all those who were in choir with me in High School.

Enjoy!

:D

Do it.

I went to a viewing at a funeral home today. A friend of my mother and aunt just passed away. They were all friends for SIXTY-FIVE years. Just ponder that for a minute. They were friends since before the second world war ended.

On her 79th birthday, this friend told her children that all she wanted was to have lunch with my mom and aunt. Imagine that. Imagine that kind of friendship.

Do it. Go the extra mile. Pick up that phone. Write that letter. Actually "do" that lunch that you've been talking about. More than that, take someone else to that lunch who otherwise wouldn't be able to go. It's worth it. And it could all end tomorrow.

Women, stress and bonding

A UCLA study has apparently proven that women have a different reaction to stress than men. The now familiar "fight or flight" response to stress does not tell the entire story where women are concerned.

Women, it seems, have a "tend and befriend" response to stress. Oxytocin, the hormone released when women breastfeed, is also released during times of stress, and overrides the "fight or flight" response to encourage women to care for their children and bond with other women. Testosterone, which is increased during times of stress in men, heightens the "fight or flight" response.

Two women scientists from the UCLA lab realized that this was true, even among their own co-workers.

When the women who worked in the lab were stressed, they came in, cleaned the lab, had coffee, and bonded, says Dr. Klein. When the men were stressed, they holed up somewhere on their own.

This need for bonding in response to stress translates into a life-or-death need for women friends. The study showed that the more friends a woman had, the healthier she was over the long term--even after such stressful events as the death of a spouse.

Hat tip to MK.