Change of Season
In my early twenties I lived in a couple different places in California for a few years – they have cool summer and warm summer and not much else. Rainy season and drier season. I thought that I...
View ArticleI Have a Dumb Phone
We had dinner the other night, several friends and I, and in comparing stories it came up – as it often does – that I am one of the last people in the US that doesn’t have a smart phone. Oh wait, it...
View ArticleUnexpected Pleasures
Obligations, have-tos, to-dos, endless tasks mounded here and there in front of us until the end of time. Or so it often appears. Why look up and out when only these nagging things are there to...
View ArticleThe Cold is Coming
The sun has melted today’s light layer of frost from the still green grass and shrubs. I read a brief article in the paper a couple of days ago that our autumn is protracted this year because it...
View ArticleColoring, Color, Colorful
Did you like to color as a child? A boxful of crayons and a coloring book, a rainy afternoon, a good spot at the table – happiness was mine. I envied the kids who got the big box of crayons but I...
View ArticleRandom Things for which I am Thankful: Opportunities
A person once told me that ‘You have to try new things’. Now we’ll set aside the irony that at the time of the telling, despite my lower age, I had already tried many more things than this person and...
View ArticleRandom Things for which I am Thankful: Reading
Reading has been a great boon for me. There are many things that crowd in and call out for our attention, some important and others not terribly so. We must constantly prioritize all of these...
View ArticleRandom Things for which I am Thankful: Making Connections
I read this short story in my early teen years that described an unusual and cleverly designed prison. The cells were set up in a sort of spiral within a stone enclosure. Each cell contained one...
View ArticleBoosting that Mood
(I admit to updating this post from last year, see my recent post on the busy season as my excuse.) Memories of Christmases past This is the happiest, most joyful time of the year. Or it is supposed...
View ArticleThe Quality of Sound
It looks as though we may be in for a cold and snowy winter season. I’m sure that some of you are smiling and cheering but I am equally sure that there are plenty in my camp of winter endurers. I...
View ArticleTwas the Week Before Christmas (Redux)
Twas the week before Christmas and all through the work-place, Creatures were hurrying, scurrying and running the rat race. “I have to get done, have vacation to take – Off to Grandma’s, the in-laws or...
View ArticleThat Moment before the Moment
Christmas is hours away, ready or not. This is the moment for the deep breath, the step back, the last survey of status. Time for a last minute tweak here, an addition there, perhaps small changes in...
View ArticleIdentifying Connections
When I am fully alert, aware and focused in my current moment (instead of running through the constant lists in my head of what should be done, and where else I must go, etc.) I remind myself to look...
View ArticleShort Term Planning
public domain image I know this is the time of year to hatch grand ideas, named Resolutions, not a time to be thinking small. Well, the fellow who normally cuts my hair was stricken with pneumonia...
View ArticleProcrastinating Resolution Planning
Do you make New Year Resolutions? Do you plan them, or are they usually spur of the moment ideas? Do you make the same one every year? Do you make progress on it? Sorry, I don’t mean to seem like I...
View ArticleGetting to ‘Normal’
I usually keep Christmas décor up until on or about January 6th, so now I am in the process of taking it down. Getting back to ‘normal’. In our house this often means this pile up of Christmas that...
View ArticleCatching Up, Keeping Up, Staying Ahead of Things
A New Year starts a fresh calendar, but the slate isn’t wiped entirely clean. There is much that gets carried over, all of the open tasks on your lists – wherever you keep them. And snow. We are...
View ArticleIn the Grip of Winter Exhaustion
When I was about 12 and enamored with the idea of love, my mom told me about a book that she had enjoyed which had a love story but so much more. The book was Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman...
View ArticleFavorite Ways to While Away a Winter Day
I think that my brain might be freezing up this long winter. I’ve tried to start a few new posts and they are all now waiting for me to find a way to finish the ones that are worthy and dispose of the...
View ArticleA Jumbled Approach
I said that I would bring a treat in to work this morning. I said it on Monday, so I had time to plan – sort of. Other than being at work most of each day in between, sleep, eating, household chores...
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