At times of personal crisis the world seems to shrink until all you can see is your own pain and despair.Thats where Liz Gilbert was when she decided to spend a year exploring the world at least exploring Italy, India and Bali. Her story played beautifully by Julie Roberts in the newly released movie feels at times narcissistic and shallow.But her pain is all too evident as she works to forgive herself and find her way to emotional and spiritual balance.

If youre lucky, youve got a mom who is also a friend, or at least someone you can talk to.So do it talk to her. Talk about that time hopefully a long way in the future when the phone rings and its the hospital saying, Somethings happened to your mom.It is, in fact, just a matter of a phone call that can change our lives and our relationship with our moms. A diagnosis, an accident is can happen in an instant.

The TODAY show had a segment this morning on the popularity of letting your hair go gray naturally. Which really means stepping off the color treadmill and letting nature take over.

I kept a photo on the refrigerator door for a long, long time. The picture was of my eldest daughter and I at a picnic, taken at a moment neither of us was posing or prepared. We both had on sunglasses and were laughing together at something. Heres what I loved about that picture: you had to do a serious double take to tell which was me and which was my daughter. We looked so very much alike. Of course, I loved that!I didnt feel the same joy when I looked at my mom and wondered if people could still tell us apart.