“It’s not all unicorns and rainbows,” someone says to point out that whatever they are going through isn’t all fun and games and they shouldn’t expect it to be. Whatever it is might be college, a job, or raising kids or just a random Tuesday afternoon. The point being, we have to live in reality and not be all “woo[…]
On My Heart (A Series) … Here We Go Again
A year ago next Tuesday is the anniversary of my open heart surgery to replace my leaking aortic and mitral valves. As it turned out, the surgeon made a (poor) judgment call and decided the mitral was not bad enough to replace. I say this again, not because you may have forgotten that I mentioned it several dozen times in[…]
On Turning 60 Part VI (Getting Angry, Then Getting Over It)…
Charles and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary this week in the Great Smoky Mountains. We rented an AirBNB on a small family farm outside Gatlinburg, where the owner provides farm fresh eggs, goat milk soap and other natural products from her garden and animals. The cute one bedroom cabin was decorated with bears and Dolly Parton themed pillows and[…]
On Dreams…
The only thing that remains the same is that things change.
On Turning 60 Part V (The Body Snatchers)
Drive by my house on any sunny day, and this is what you will see. The picture above is me looking over my garden, taken secretly (see, without permission) by my little brother. He didn’t bother to honk or give me a heads up so I could smooth my gray frizz or duck behind the compost bin like someone yelled[…]
On Turning 60 Part IV (Conversations)…
“Old people get together and all they talk about is their health problems.” I play Bunco with a group of friends from school. My relationship with one of these ladies started in 1st grade, but most of us met in 7th grade when three or four elementary schools merged into Carl Albert Junior High. Like many people, after years of[…]
On My Heart (A Series)… Surrendering.
In my last conversation with the cardiologist, we talked about what was next for me. I get so frustrated because each test says something different. But, for a doctor to perform a mitral valve repair with a MitraclipTM it has to go to a committee for approval and committees love tests. Replacement of my aortic valve did not need a[…]
On Turning 60 Part II (Looking for Ancestors, Finding Self) …
Is this what 60 is? Or is this senility?
On Turning 60 Part I…
I turned 60 years old this month. I’m having a hard time getting my brain around this. How the heck did I get here? I was just 40 about a month and a half ago. I still remember puberty, but now require my Waze app to go places I’ve been dozens of times. A colleague referred to me as “middle[…]
On Being a Person in a Meat Suit…
It is so hard to be a person, isn’t it? So very hard. I’m not talking just about being a decent human being, which is nearly impossible some days. But, the basic daily chore of waking up and dragging ourselves out of bed every day can be terrifying. We walk around in the meat suits assigned to us, navigating through[…]