My beloved and I went to Alaska earlier this month on our honeymoon. It was glorious. If you have the time and the means, and any interest in wildlife, native Alaskan culture, or gorgeous scenery in cooler temperatures, I strongly encourage you to book a trip to Alaska sometime between June and September. During our travels we witnessed so much[…]
On Human Arrogance…
Pictured is the Guanacaste tree for which the province of Guanacaste, Costa Rica was named. My beloved and I (wait, I get to call him my fiancé now!) spent the past week in this lovely part of the world. If you have the opportunity to visit, it would do you some good. The beaches are clean – not white like[…]
On The Relief of Being Ordinary…
Aren’t we tired? Aren’t we all tired of our quest to be extraordinary? The need to make one’s mark in a world full of people who are also trying to make their marks is exhausting. There are myriad self help books on our night stands, only half read because we tell ourselves we cannot possibly achieve what this book says[…]
On Writing Off the Year…
2022 has to be a better year. We’ve all heard it. We’ve all said it. 2020 and 2021 were horrible years, complete and total losses. We were optimistic, even if cautiously so, that 2022 was going to be better. We had hope for this brand new set of twelve months. We were betting on 2022 being the redemption year for[…]
On New Years…
Today is the first day of 2022. I know we all have hope that it will be a kinder year for us; the last two have been such jackasses.
On Where Christmas Went…
When I was a kid, my mother often read Erma Bombeck’s column to me. Mom loved Erma, and I enjoyed the column too, but I never fully appreciated the essays until I was a mother. Erma wrote the following column in 1971 and it was republished in newspapers during Christmas for years afterward. Mom had cut out the article and[…]
On What’s In a Name?
I changed my name. Why? The first assumption made by casual acquaintances and people who didn’t know me before 1984 was that I had gotten married. “I just noticed your new email signature. I guess congratulations are in order!” But, of course that’s not what happened. I guess it would be more correct to say I changed my name back[…]
On Living in Your Hands…
Live in your hands and your mind will learn to bow like a root. – Mark Nepo In his devotional called Live in Your Hands (Nepo), the author describes the difference in living too much in your head and not enough in the real life activity of living. He tells a short story about a man who, so distraught after[…]
On Relationship…
A simple tree by the roadside stands…
On Finding the Word …
For months I’ve been trying to find the word that describes what I’m feeling inside these past 12 months. Is it fear? Is it dread? Is it anger? Yes, it is all of these things, but while those words are part of it, they don’t quite satisfy my need to find just the right word. Labeling things helps me keep[…]