“There are good ships and wood ships, ships that sail the sea, but the best ships are friendships, may they always be!” — Irish Proverb So, I’ve been going to therapy for nearly a year. One of several ways I've tried to deal with my mother’s death. I’m not going to talk about any of… Continue reading Ideal Chit-Chat
The smell of moist earth and lilacs hung in the air like wisps of the past and hints of the future. (Margaret Millar) Ahhhhhhh…the melodious scent of lilacs is practically enough to put me into a trance. I can’t really think of another more distinctly memorable essence with such direct links to my childhood.… Continue reading “Sweet Dreams, Lilac”
Dear Mom, Today is your birthday. It’s always been such a special and important day for me, because you have always been so special and important to me. I’ve been thinking about this day all week. It’s not easy to know you’re not here to celebrate it, and to accept that I can’t call you or Skype with you. I can’t hear your voice outside my head...
You, dear soul, are doing fine. You have been finding your way through the struggle, and the muck and mire. You’ve had a lot to contend with over this past year. But you’ve done it every single day. Every night you’ve gone to bed, and every morning you’ve gotten up and faced the day. That’s… Continue reading A Letter from My Inner Wise Self
“…nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.” ― Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times Often lately I find myself asking my conscience or my inner voice what all this past year has taught me? I really plead with her to answer me. What have I learned that I needed to know, I ask. Have I even learned it, because some things seem to be holding on so tightly? Almost a year ago now I can pretty much pinpoint precisely when things started snowballing around me, and I felt myself losing the tenuous control that I thought I had had on my life...
Almost exactly three weeks after we lost my mother, my father and I were grabbing lunch one day, just the two of us. We'd decided to eat at a lovely little cafe not too far from where we'd been staying every night for these past few weeks; my grandmother's house, overlooking the beach and the… Continue reading The Lunch
When my son was a child, we said some variation of this to each other every day and every night, "I love you a hundred, million worlds." I'm not exactly sure of the origins of our saying it, but I know that my heart had never before felt the way that it did about him,… Continue reading A Hundred, Million Worlds
It’s such a powerful idea when you consider it carefully: Comparison is the thief of joy. I’d say it goes directly towards how often comparing ourselves or what we have to others or what they have, makes us, well, an awful lot of negative shades of our former selves. Negative shades of jealousy, envy, resentfulness,… Continue reading Don’t Just Hand Over Your Joy
This August will mark a major milestone event; our youngest son will be going off to university and moving into residence life. It will be almost exactly one month shy of the twenty-fourth anniversary of the day that I became a mother. In other words it means that I will have had a child living… Continue reading A Mom of a Different Ilk
(by a Forty-Something) Growing up on the East Coast of Canada when I did was pretty great. Since moving to the United States and spending much time getting to know friends down here I’m realizing something that as a kid I’d hadn’t put together – we had available to us most all the same popular… Continue reading Some of the Best Things About Being a Kid
One of the best things in the world must be entering a coffee shop, either to meet up with a friend or to escape life if even for a few minutes. My favorite is the coffee date. Two words that when strung together, completely and utterly appeal to me. In fact it really is one… Continue reading The Lure of the Coffee Date
Insta…Creation According to my Instagram account I have posted 1911 photos and my very first post was 159 weeks ago. Who knew? For those who aren’t familiar, Instagram is a photo app for smartphones. Wikipedia describes it as follows: “ Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that enables its users… Continue reading Insta…Creation
So, I've been ill the past few days, and in order to subsist I've been trying to wear something that allows for comfort. It has really got me thinking about some of my favorite articles of clothing that I've owned over the years. And lying here, has of course given me a chance to think,… Continue reading Prêt-à-Porter…Again & Again
o·ver·think ōvərˈTHiNGk/ verb gerund or present participle: overthinking think about (something) too much or for too long. "must you overthink every relationship?" So I woke up with one-half of my face particularly numb today, it's numb every day, but today it is amplified. It's really weird and it's a feeling that I never ever could… Continue reading The Trouble with Overthinking
It has become somewhat painfully apparent that time truly stands still for no one. I had recommended that it slow down. It did not comply. I must accept that life goes on and things change, of course. Yet although it's incredibly exciting, it’s also overwhelming some days. And it's not that I'm in the twilight… Continue reading Reflectionology
From the Booklet on Uneasiness: When I was fifteen I had a mysterious caller. Maybe now he'd be called a stalker. I automatically want to qualify that; I had a bit of a stalker, but then I hesitate because that makes it sound of less importance, and I don’t think that is the case. Well, except at… Continue reading From the Booklet on Uneasiness:
From the Guidebook for Distress: Ringalingaling ringalingaling... Ringalingaling ringalingaling... I'm just barely a teenager, home alone on a weeknight. The house phone is ringing; it’s the eighties after all...so I answer it, "Hello." A male voice comes onto the line, an older male, "Hi, is your father home?" "No," I say. He says, "Is your… Continue reading From the Guidebook for Distress:
Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. – Emily Brontë It’s in the little moments. It truly is. And in the scheme of things...these are but a few snippets. “Life is not made up of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years, but of moments. You must experience each one… Continue reading Snippets & Moments
The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands. – Anne Frank I find myself noticing my left hand as I leaf through my old pictures from before I lost some of the movement and a lot of the dexterity a couple years ago. Photos from just before, from my childhood and… Continue reading These Hands
Stockholm is surely an urban planner's dream. Everything works. Everything looks good. – Janine di Giovanni Exactly one year ago tomorrow I woke up in a charming boutique hotel in an area of Stockholm, Sweden called Solna. The sun was streaming in through the windows and it was a gorgeous day. I was nearly over… Continue reading Metro-politan Surprise
... I hear you laugh, my heart fills full up ♫♪♪♫♪ Sisters share the scent and smells – the feel of a common childhood. — Pam Brown Our Family Tree: So, my sister is about to celebrate a milestone birthday this week, and I wish that I could be there to celebrate her big day!… Continue reading You Were There with Me, Sister
A Little Then I'm lying in a hospital bed; it's never quiet here during the daytime. I'm lying very still, partly because I'm too tired to move and partly because when I'm perfectly immobile I feel like I might be fine. Even though I’m lying prone, it’s like I could possibly get up and walk… Continue reading I Can’t Control the Wind, But I Can Adjust the Sail
An Open Letter to My Loved Ones Dearly Beloved, Without you, I’m not sure how I could have gotten through the last two years and as the anniversary arrives in just a few days, I don’t want to wait any longer to tell you how much you mean to me. Or to tell you how… Continue reading An Open Letter to My Loved Ones
My life has spanned the Seventies, the Eighties, the Nineties, Y2K to today. At different times I’ve measured it in different ways; chronologically, in milestones, the "no kids-kids at home-grown kids" years, where I lived, from elementary school to college, before and after marriage, etcetera. This is a first though, measuring it, and I use… Continue reading Let’s Go to the Movies, Annie
I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song. I’m twenty-two now but I won’t be for long Time hurries on. – Paul Simon Dear Twenty-Year-Old Me, You’re two decades into a great life. You’re fortunate; you were born into a loving family. You've had a pretty normal and happy upbringing. You've enjoyed a great… Continue reading The Leaves that are Green Turn to Brown
What makes a fictional character memorable? Or relatable? As a devoted-and-proud diehard fan of the television show Gilmore Girls, it was with great sadness that I took the news of the wonderful character actor and Tony winning Stage aficionado, Edward Herrmann’s passing on New Year’s Eve 2014. He had portrayed the family patriarch Richard Gilmore… Continue reading All You Have to do is Call My Name
It’s almost 2015, tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. I’ve started to notice articles about resolutions online and also shared on Facebook. And I feel that old familiar pull to better myself. Technically, it's really no different than any other day, but beginning a new year can seem like and feel like, at least in our… Continue reading It Seems Like, Yes it Feels Like a Brand New Day
To spend the rest of our lives With each other The rest of our days Like two lovers Forever yeah, forever… But how does this happen? How does a relationship evolve into a marriage that withstands the tests of time and seems, to anyone observing it, to have been destiny? I’m certain of only one… Continue reading You & Me We Are Destined You’ll Agree
How well does anybody know anybody? What's TMI***? There is definitely such a thing! Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know. – Daniel J. Boorstin I've shied away from writing here in what I've come to see as the dreaded (by some) listicle form. Listicle: a listicle is a short-form of writing that uses… Continue reading You Don’t Know Me
If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life. – Abraham Maslow I find this quote to be potentially quite deceptive, depending on how it’s perceived. It spoke to me in such a positive light when I first read it,… Continue reading Someone Told Me Not to Cry
When certain words stay with us it's natural and easy to wonder or question why? What about them rang so true, hit so close to home, touched us so deeply? Hi there! I'm currently at work on a piece, a follow-up to last week's piece on happiness....on unhappiness. And also a one or two… Continue reading Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered am I
…And you will be happy, too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fznw-AGoENo Preface Sometimes I chalk energy and having lots of it, up to things like; adrenalin, a good night’s sleep, cardio, eating lots of nutrient-rich foods, spending time outdoors in the sunshine…because they are all proven. But happiness can bring energy up, and conversely unhappiness can bring energy… Continue reading Make Just One Someone Happy
…won't you carry it in? In your head, in your mouth, in your soul. Do you ever feel like that? It’s been my experience that people tend to belong in one of two camps; Mountains or Beach. However, I’ve met lovers of both. There are certainly many reasons to love both. It may directly… Continue reading The Ocean Breathes Salty
What if your life changed in a mere second? Or in just a few precious minutes? What if much of the life you knew was gone? How would you look at yourself? Would you blame someone or something? Would you blame yourself? Would you hide from the world? Would you hate yourself? Would you hate… Continue reading I’ve Got Some Questions
'Coz I'm So Tired [a kind of poem] I'm tired of the way my face still feels numb, and of how every little hair that brushes it tickles it beyond my capacity to ignore I'm tired of the way my hand clamps up when I'm trying to do something crucial, at the very… Continue reading ‘Coz I’m So Tired
No matter how busy you are, you must take time to make the other person feel important. — Mary Kay Ash Life is generally a pretty busy balancing act of daily living. Sometimes things that are important to us, I mean really meaningful and precious aspects of our lives, can get pushed out of the… Continue reading Love Takes Time…
I gave myself a pep-talk the other day; a look-me-in-the-eye, in-my-face kind of pep-talk. I think I need to do that more often. Most of us probably could use them more often. Sometimes I suddenly think about the fact that I am me, and it kind of hits me right then…I am me…all the… Continue reading The Human Tragedy Consists in the Necessity of Living with the Consequences
…Who'd give the world to stop the clock, and turn back the hands of time. — Merle Haggard Everyone has family, right? It’s a thread that ties you to another person or group of people that you don’t even necessarily know, have possibly never even met…but...they’re family! It means somewhere along the way someone you’re… Continue reading There’s Got to be Some Folks Around With Memories Just Like Mine
Don't let your life pass you by…Weep not for the memories… I have been remiss; I missed posting a blog last Tuesday, and believe me I felt kind of awful about it. I didn’t forget, not at all, but as I mentioned I’ve been traveling and spending as much time with family as possible. And,… Continue reading I Will Remember You, Will You Remember Me?
I’m sitting here lakeside today, our last full day here at the “compound”. My husband and much of his immediate family are scattered around enjoying this beautiful summer day. In a couple of cases there are three generations present. Currently two nephews, a niece and her friend are out playing together in the paddle… Continue reading In the Summertime When the Weather is Hot
A Stroke of Good Fortune 