"Neighbors" Monday's Warm Cocoa 8.10.2026

“You have great neighbors!” -  Ambulance EMT   

Neighbors

Her morning didn’t begin the way she thought it would; even for a Monday.

“I was feeling ill all weekend and didn’t know if I could get up! I tried anyway,” Laura said.

That try caused her to fall to the floor.

“I passed out! I don’t know for how long. So, as soon as I regained clarity I reached my phone and touched two numbers.”

The first call Laura made was to emergency services. The next was to her across-the-street neighbor.

“As soon as I called, my neighbors came over right over. They arrived about the same time as the Fire Department EMTs.”

The EMTs started their work by talking and assessing. They were gentle and thorough. As were her attending neighbors. The neighbors also answered EMT questions, were supportive in every way possible and sure not to be in the way. They scurried a little further into the background as soon as the ambulance arrived. 

It took quite a bit of maneuvering to roll the gurney from the ambulance through the front door, across the foyer, through a corner of the living room, past an tight angled hallway and into the bedroom. Then, the four fire department care specialists worked carefully to prepare and lift Laura securely onto the gurney before retracing their route out of the house.

As they wheeled out, one of the EMTs said, “You have great neighbors!”

“Yes, I do,” Laura said brightly with a smile. “My neighbors are the best!”

“We’ll lock your house and check back with you a little later today. We’ve got you,” Laura’s neighbors called out as the fire department lifted and pushed her into position, securing her in the ambulance.

Gratefully, Laura arrived back home later that day. Her daughter-in-law collected her from the hospital and helped her into the house. Laura hobbled along in the medical boot protecting her broken foot. Her across-the-street neighbors brought her dinner that night. 

Others came and visited with her the entire evening, making sure she wasn’t alone. Laura’s friends jumped into action, calling each other and they soon had day-forward meals lined up. They knew it would be difficult for her to stand and cook food by herself. 

As soon as meals were planned, they called Laura’s daughter, living in a different state, to let her know what had happened, while comforting her that her mother was not alone. They’d be there for her.

“They’re always here for me,” Laura said. “Lots of people use the word neighbor to describe someone who lives next door, across the street, or nearby. But, the people living near me live by what my neighbor, Chris Hand, once called, ‘the neighbor code,’ while helping me through a difficulty. Thank goodness I have such neighbors!”

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cyq612ohmd8YUwEa5WXZjA3IWJVDPzOe/view?usp=sharing

"Identity" Monday's Warm Cocoa 8.3.2026

"I had become absorbed by my title! I could no longer see another identity,”  

Identity

The casual dinner conversation turned as soon as Carly made a profound statement.

“When you’re an adult there is no reason to be unhappy in your work!”

The truth of her statement seemed to suck the air out of the entire, iconic restaurant. Of course, her words weren’t suddenly voiced without basis. The preceding conversation was all about the path she and her husband, Phil, had taken in their careers. Neither of their paths had followed a straight-line to prosperity, happiness and fulfillment. Yet happily, they had arrived in such a position.

“I was working a crushing number of hours,” Phil had explained a few moments before Carly’s insightful remark. “The pressure was always on and when a management change occurred, in the form of a new CEO, the culture shifted immediately. It became even more intense!”

His career had followed a corporate path he characterized as “title focused.” And, it took a major shift in workplace pressure, demand and leadership to reveal his plight.

“I had become absorbed by my title! I could no longer see another identity,” he explained.

Carly’s eyes were soft and understanding as he spoke. She had been through every part of this journey with him and had helped him walk a path toward personal and professional re-discovery. They had been through it together and they had uncovered recognizable warning signs while seeking a more joyful and fulfilling life.

Carly became so adept at seeing those cautionary markers that when she saw them in her own workplace she recognized them immediately.

“The people I was working with were unhappy and negative about everything,” she explained. “That negativity was so endemic I knew it wouldn’t change. That’s when I realized that as an adult there is no reason to be unhappy in your work. I could seek other opportunities.”

She looked for a change in employment and atmosphere and soon found it. Now she’s happily working and using her expertise elsewhere, while appreciating the enhanced positivity at work and home. The same has been true for her husband.

“I wake up excited every day now,” Phil said as he described a recent experience he had as part of his work.

His eyes brightened as he spoke. His eyes lifted and sparkled. The inflection sounding in his voice was one of pure joy. His happiness reflected an identity no longer dominated by a job title.

Phil and Carly have claimed their chosen identities. They are fulfilled, happy and contributing to each other and our community as a result.

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e5_jupxN3vxL53bCgPiPgpA5D6-OFEbZ/view?usp=sharing

"Study Like a Dog" Monday's Warm Cocoa 7.27.2026

 

“Harry Pupper knows my routines and watches everything I do.” 

Study Like a Dog

Harry Pupper has been part of our family for twelve years now. He’s like me in at least one way. He’s getting a little “long in the tooth. We’ve lived together for a long time.

I say together because he’s with me inside and outside. We walk together, play together and often work together. 

Over the years I’ve noticed that he seemingly has an internal calendar and clock. I noticed this because he anticipates almost every move I make. He knows the day and time I go to regular-appointments and is often curious when my movements vary from what he knows is usual for me.

The other day when my “normal” routine changed and Harry Pupper was with me, I noticed a quizzical look envelope his face. And, for the first time I began to understand the depth at which he center’s his attention and interest on studying me.

It is this intense desire to study the people who are important to dogs that caused “Frederick the Great” to describe his Italian Greyhounds in the mid-1700s, particularly one named Biche, as: "The only, absolute and best friend a man has in this selfish world, the only one that will not betray or deny him." Over the ensuing years this statement has been shortened and modernized to describe dogs as “Man’s Best Friend.” And, there is another common saying, a bumper sticker, I thought of as I pondered Harry Pupper’s study habits.

Now I’m wondering if I am the person my dog thinks I am!  And, I can see my need to study and fully incorporate the “Harry Pupper Method” of friendship. Here are a few of Harry’s traits.

Harry is always sensitive to what his closest friends are feeling. When they’re happy, he shares their joy. When they’re sad he is there, offering his support and love. He also shares his love in other ways.

Harry watches out for his loved ones. He alerts us to potential dangers. He never hesitates to warn of potential danger and is wary of people he doesn’t know. At the same time, he always remembers people he knows are important to us.

Harry demonstrates his understanding of true worth. He is completely loyal, giving and doesn’t hide is affection. He also knows the value of home.

Harry pays attention to his home. He’s sure to walk the yard every day to make sure things are as they should be. His heart is where his home is.

His heart is completely true. He observes his loved ones, knows their habits, their likes and their schedule. He even reminds us of when it is time to do the things he knows are important to us.

Harry Pupper reminds me to be the person he thinks I am and how to study like a dog! 

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e5_jupxN3vxL53bCgPiPgpA5D6-OFEbZ/view?usp=sharing

"Confused," Monday's Warm Cocoa 7.20.2026

"What Happened? Did you lose your car?” 

Confused

It was early on a Tuesday morning. By the time I parked my car at the airport the sun was beginning to filter through the clouds, so silver glistened around the gray-puffs floating above. I noticed because I had stopped to complete a personal airport parking lot ritual.

My ritual is simple. Before I walk far from where I’ve parked, I stop and shoot a quick photo of the sign marking the location. That way I don’t have to worry about remembering where my car sits. After all, it seems as if I always arrive late at night, after working a full day.

My return flight touched down the next day, just before nine p.m. I wasn’t worried about finding my car, because I had the photo and I’d made a couple of mental notes to confirm my memory the day before. So, I walked right to the spot without concern. Until anxiety gripped my soul.

My car was not where I left it! Confused, I pulled my phone from my pocket and looked at the location photo. E8! No car! And, it was not only my car. The entire parking section exhibited only asphalt! More than one-hundred cars had disappeared! Had a magician befuddled me?

If so, then that same magician had confused others as well. A single man and one equally dazed couple stood not far away talking to an airport parking lot attendant. I sidled up while listening to their exchange.

“Your cars have been moved,” the attendant said.

The couple asked, “where are they?”

“Let me make a call,” the attendant responded before reporting, “they’re between E3 and E5. They tried to put the cars in the same order as their original location.”

Then, we the beleaguered travelers, began trudging together toward the promised location. The lone man found his car first. The couple found their car next. Mine was not yet found!

“We’re not going to leave you out here alone,” the couple exclaimed.

So, we walked the dark rows together until I spotted my car parked at seemingly the greatest distance possible.

“I’ve got it,” I cried. “Thank you for staying to help!”

They smiled. Our shared confusion had created a bond, so we exchanged contact information before parting. 

“Leaving the airport now.” I messaged before driving home.

When I walked into our house my wife was waiting.

“What happened? Did you lose your car?”

A second wave of surprise pummeled me!

“Why do you ask?”

“You’re much longer than I expected!”

“As a matter of fact,” I wearily grinned, while watching her confusion about how my car could have been moved without my knowledge!

And in the end? My confusion and exhaustion had been overwhelmed by kind and giving strangers.

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e5_jupxN3vxL53bCgPiPgpA5D6-OFEbZ/view?usp=sharing

"Ambition" Monday's Warm Cocoa 7.13.2026

 

“He’s not just dreaming. He’s pursuing his ambition.” – Liam’s Grandmother 

Ambition

“What a difference between this year’s summer camp and last year’s,” Andrew Bart said excitedly over the phone. “You remember the horrible experience he had last year?”

I did remember Liam’s previous years’ experience. It was heart breaking.

“But this is different! This week he came to me saying he was dreaming of going back to computer camp. When I told my mother about his dreaming she responded with something unexpected.”

“Andrew, he’s not just dreaming,” she taught. “He’s pursuing his ambition!”

Andrew took a pensive pause before speaking again. “Isn’t it sad that so many of us loose our ability to recognize life’s small, simple, most important and transformative experiences? I’m so glad that my mother has maintained her ability to do so!”

Maintaining one’s ability to continually identify small and essential happiness-building moments isn’t singularly important as a parent. It’s also indispensable for individual life-long happiness and growth.

The aging process often dampens one’s ability to recognize the core significance of exploration. Which creates a strong desire to achieve something of significance. Maybe it’s because the acquisition of life experience conveys a lot of what could be called perceived-failure; an experience, outcome, or missed expectation that someone interprets as a failure, instead of dream-creating-exploration. This misconception often causes a person to no longer believe in themself. That’s what happened to Liam last summer.

Yet this summer, Liam Bart has offered you and me a window into how we might recapture and grow our own dreams into ambition. His is the perfect example of dreaming to acquire happiness. Because a person’s acquisition of ambition always starts with a dream.

Dreams get introduced to our minds through the trying-on of new ideas and activities. And, Liam’s computer camp has introduced him to many ideas to test. He’s learned to write computer code and has even written his own program. In the coming days he’ll be learning about creating and growing his own YouTube channel. These are all ideas that were unknown to him just a short time ago. Now they’re accelerating his happiness, prompting action and inspiring change.

Allow Liam’s process of happiness re-discovery open a door to being ten-year-old-like again. Introduce yourself to new ideas and activities. Allow them to well-up inside you so they can inspire new dreams; things you’ve never thought of before. And then, when you awaken, perhaps you’ll find you’ve discovered new ambition, as well as excitement once thought only to reside in the young.

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e5_jupxN3vxL53bCgPiPgpA5D6-OFEbZ/view?usp=sharing

"Aha," Monday's Warm Cocoa 7.6.2026

"The goal is to say, can something beautiful grow out of this suffering?" – Robert Puff 

Aha

I’ve always taken pride in my work ethic, going back to my early days, as someone who was never the largest or most talented member of the youth sports teams on which I participated. I just played sports unremarkably. Until, I had a very particular aha moment.

One night a large, athletically gifted guy, came back to one of our practice sessions a few years after he had left the team. He thought he could simply show up again, years later, and instantly reclaim his position at the top of the roster. It didn’t happen!

At the end of his first, and only, practice back he came to me and asked, “what’s your name?”

I rehearsed my name to him, knowing that we had played together years prior, to which he responded Incredulously, “You’re Lynn Butterfield?”

That moment was my sudden realization. My instantly gained understanding, and a triumphant discovery. My hard work and discipline to the sport had transformed me from someone who was completely unmemorable to him into a player that had, over time, surpassed him. A person who had relied on his innate talent alone. My willingness and dedication to use and exercise my comparatively modest gifts had turned a lack of superior talent into good. From that moment I knew I could most often work and will my way to success.

Don’t get me wrong, I have continually discovered personal limits. For example, I never developed enough talent to play any sport as a professional athlete. There are physical factors precluding that. Yet, this discovery that anyone could turn modest personal gifts toward a creating a better, brighter future has benefited me ever since. 

This principle can also be beneficially appled toward life’s continually offered challenges. Robert Puff artfully says, “the goal is to say, can something beautiful grow out of this suffering?"

We each have the ability to learn from our suffering and every faced challenge while applying our meger gifts and exercising them for our good and inspiration. Everything we confront can become a continual source of aha moments to be used for our own good!

If you’re not netting you all you want in your life ask: Am I working to become the person that, others who knew you before you transformed your trials into good, won’t recognize in a couple of short years? 

 Sometimes that means starting new habits. Sometimes it means stopping old habits, while giving yourself the gift of time to grow spiritually, physically, relationally, mentally and financially.

Witness the person you’ll become!

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e5_jupxN3vxL53bCgPiPgpA5D6-OFEbZ/view?usp=sharing

"Open Avenues," Monday's Warm Cocoa 6.29.2026

 

"The person you want to be is on the other side of what you don't want to face." - Chelom Leavitt 

Open Avenues

James and Crystal Hofferber were looking to create goodness on the other side of what they didn’t want to face. They never dreamt of the unlikely event that took their adult daughter’s life. Their loss was unthinkable. It was also unthinkable that the goodness of their daughter could also parish.

“Parish the thought,” Crystal said to James as they unlocked the door to their daughter’s now empty home and crossed its threshold. They were there to face something else they didn’t want to face. The examination of their daughter’s belongings. At first the reality of the task at hand seemed to hit them in the face as if the ice cold slap of reality. It was overwhelming.

But, as they looked at the nice furniture and other possessions remaining in the home, the feeling of being overwhelmed soon began to fade.

“James,” Crystal said, “I think most of this furniture is new or barely used! We could donate it to others in need. We certainly don’t need it!”

James had been listening to Crystal with his head bowed in reverence to the moment. The pair have been married for fifty-nine years and their trust in eachother is deep and unwaivering. As soon as his wife had finished her sentence, James did what he charistically does. He pulled his pen out of his pocket and began write. He made a list of everything. When they were prepared to gift their daughter’s possessions, toward the continuation of her intrinsic goodness, he pulled his phone out of his pocket so he could make some calls.

He called the local garden club first, to give them the hundreds of still potted plants to its membership. They came with trucks and many hands to harvest the plants, to continue planting beauty. Then he made another call to Open Avenues.

Open Avenues has been creating opportunities for people with disabilities since 1975. They  help individuals build skills, find employment, and live with purpose. If you’re ever having a bad day just go to the Open Avenues warehouse and interact with the people they serve. You’ll be inspired immediately and walk away happy. And, when the truck from Open Avenues pulled into the driveway to remove the furniture, their people brought their happiness and goodness with them.

“I found this jewelry in one of these drawers,” one of the men said while loading the truck. “What should I do with it?”

His innocence and innate kindness was the perfect personification of the person James and Crystal had become on other side of the tragedy they didn’t want to face. The loss of their daughter.

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I’m Lynn Butterfield, Real Estate & Lifestyle Expert and Television Host for American Dream TV. I’ve helped hundreds of Buyers and Sellers, as an Associate Broker with Coldwell Banker, to discover where and how they want to live and work; to achieve what I call Realesation™. That’s why I bring you American Dream TV, Monday’s Warm Cocoa and Home by Design Magazine to stir your heart and mind. Contact me so I can join you along your own unique path of discovery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e5_jupxN3vxL53bCgPiPgpA5D6-OFEbZ/view?usp=sharing