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The Eyes Have It!

Now, either no one recognizes me all masked up or nobody cares as they just want to get home in the safety of their own little bubble. So how are you feeling? Are you missing personal contact with your friends…

The Loose Tooth Lesson

The day was just beginning, and I already felt defeated. I was overwhelmed as I looked at my To Do List for that day. So many things needed to be done that I knew I’d be up all night to…

The Best Medicine

I put on my glamorous paper towel gown and climbed on the cot and nervously waited for someone to reassure me that everything was okay. Early in my pregnancy, I felt a stabbing pain on the right side of my…

Bird is the Word

My husband made it clear early on that he would rather build a bridge to jump off than participate in my quotidian inquisition. My favorite morning ritual is reading the Word of the Day posts on my computer while enjoying…

Play Ball!

Knowing all that, for some reason, I’m beginning to have a need to see a game — to experience America’s pastime once more. I was never much of a sportsman. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Being the fastest kid…

Ikigai & Me & My Writing Career

Don’t begin your writing career by trying to rival John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath or worse, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Okinawans lead long lives. Here in the USA, we’ve been told that longevity is related to eating healthy, exercising…

The Race of Ages

Her face contorted with noiseless laughter, so deep I worried a lack of oxygen might damage her brain. The line in the dirt had been drawn. On one side stood my husband, the official of the race, assisted by our…

Savor the Little Things

Then the path turned and led us straight up a hill covered in wildflowers – mountain heather, Indian paintbrush, rosy spirea, yellow broadleaf arnica, bluebells, and more. Sometimes, when a big thing is missing, little things have their chance to…

Humbled

Heck, I usually see my favorite hairdresser JP every three weeks, so I had no idea how bad the gray actually was. This era of the COVID19 virus has been very frightening but also very humbling – incredibly humbling. It’s…

The Good, The Bad, and The Oldie

Running from one department store to another, I tried on dozens of hip outfits, and each one made me feel like I was modeling a Halloween costume. I was talking to my brother on the phone the other day. “How…

green plant on brown pot beside white sofa

An Old Couch, Two Chairs, and COVID

Over the years, I vacuumed and spot-cleaned that couch, washed the pillows repeatedly, and finally had it recovered. In our first year of marriage, thirty-five years ago, my husband and I acquired a sectional couch with a subtle beige and…

Footloose and Boomless

I wanted to be able to drive through town, launch my own craft, and dance with the wind once again. I couldn’t dismiss the thought that the little sailboat looked remarkably like a battered mixing bowl. Wide and round-bottomed, it…

Gone Fishing

That was his mistake because by the end of the day I had caught fourteen bream and two decent sized catfish, and he did not catch anymore. After seven crazy weeks in the house avoiding personal contact with the outside…

I’m Not Okay

Knowing that my friends are going through the same things means I always have someone to talk with about it, someone who knows exactly how I’m feeling. On a Tuesday evening last September, I was at my 10-year-old son’s Boy…

Jaybirds at the Beach

So, as soon as the weather breaks, and there is even a hint of summer, I’m digging out the beach umbrella, gathering up a blanket, packing a lunch into a cooler and I’m heading out for a day at the…

Dad’s Work Gloves

After sorting the nails and screws on the top of the bench, a ray of sun burst through the narrow window of the tiny basement room, illuminating the edge of something wedged between the workbench and the wall. Just two…

A Bag Lady without the Bag

The path was stony, littered with manure, and presented many tripping hazards, especially for those of us who were young when Bruce Springsteen was young, which was the whole group. The flight from Cape Town to Kasane was uneventful except…

Corona-cation

The past few weeks have certainly been a way to unwind, slow-down, and clean out, while surely being one of the most stressful situations of our lives. “If I only had more time,” “If I could only catch up on…

The Only Way to Fly

There was a time when flying so petrified me that I could barely step into an airport, even if I was just seeing someone off. I love to go on vacation. My problem is the getting there. I hate to…

Breakfast with my Late Husband

Before David could retire, our church was packed for his funeral. I jerked awake alone in our bed meant for two. Donning my robe, I hurried to the kitchen to make French toast in memory of my late husband David’s…