Forty years is made up of a whole lot of individual days. It is what happens routinely in those days that add up to make a life, or a marriage. Sure, vacations are nice, breaks from the routine, opportunities to do some different things and see some different places. But vacations are just that - temporarily vacating the familiar. Then it is back to the familiar. One of our philosophies of creating a happy life, and marriage, is to make the familiar - the everyday days with the everyday tasks … [Read more...] about 40 Day Love Fest: Daily Marriage Practices for Easy Living
helene van manen
40 Day Love Fest: Kindness Guides Our Days
This song sums up what we strive for...in our day to day connection. ps Let us know if you love this song by David Wilcox as much as we do. Dave and Helene Van Manen celebrate living intentionally together for 40 years with honoring 40 days during the summer of 2016. They have joined forces to raise children, create music, build a community non-profit and more. Kindness is one of the secret ingredients in their recipe for loving. … [Read more...] about 40 Day Love Fest: Kindness Guides Our Days
40 Day Love Fest: Music Brought Us Together – The Van Manens are born
In the beginning, there was music. If there is a thread that connects the entire length of our marriage, as well as the couple of years we were together before we were married, it is music. Making it and listening to it. Just a few months before we met, Dave did his first public performance at his high school (Brooklyn Tech) after abandoning the plan to become a professional football player (his not-quite 5'7" stature had something to do with this abandonment) and setting his sights on a … [Read more...] about 40 Day Love Fest: Music Brought Us Together – The Van Manens are born
40 Day Love Fest – Our Magical Mystery Marriage
We've been talking about how to honor and celebrate our 40 year wedding anniversary (which we cannot even believe we are saying "forty"). We originally thought we would take 40 days off (one for each year), but that did not work out with our work schedules. So we grew that idea into creating the "40-Day LoveFest," which will consist of doing something special each day for 40 days to celebrate these 40 magical years, including taking time each day to remember the years, the ups and downs, the … [Read more...] about 40 Day Love Fest – Our Magical Mystery Marriage
The Call To Take People To Nature
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.” ~ John Muir What was left of the daylight was rapidly fading. The primeval silence of the forest was as much a presence as the Douglas firs that towered above us. The deep hoot of a great horned owl suddenly … [Read more...] about The Call To Take People To Nature
