It’s been catch as catch can with time on the Catio this summer, for one reason or another. Today is a seize the moment kind of day and it has been divine. The temperature outside is in the 80s with low humidity and an awesome summer breeze. Sitting out here alone, because the cats have… Continue reading
Category: LIFE AND SUCH
My Two Cents
I started school in the fall of 1961. Every day, I was given two cents for milk money. As I stood at the end of the driveway waiting for the bus to come, I would dig the pennies out of my change purse. I played with them, and I studied them. Often, they were brand… Continue reading
Bring Out the Old Pictures
What I like best about Father’s Day is it was overlooked in my family. We downplayed most occasions and holidays. Thank goodness, one less thing to haunt me. I can choose to reminisce as I please. This year, I am choosing to bring out the old pictures. Here’s one of Dad’s favorite pictures of himself.… Continue reading
Happy Mother’s Day, 2022
Sometimes we have events or days or periods in our lives when we just know it’s a demarcation or a declaration that says, “life is different now.” This year, Mother’s Day with its we’re-only-doing-an-overdue-project-around-the-house-instead-of-celebrating-and-that’s-okay theme, ended up being one of my most (maybe THE most) special of all Mother’s Day. My daughter is creative and… Continue reading
Dreaming
It was a pleasant enough dream. I was a teenager living with Dad and Mom and we were getting used to our new home. Mom and I were upstairs in her bedroom talking. I heard Dad come in the front door and leaned over the railing and saw him. I ran down the stairs and… Continue reading
Anyway
One of my favorite topics is success. I enjoy succeeding and I enjoy it when others succeed. I enjoy watching people try to succeed. I cry at live performances, even when I don’t know them. I appreciate their effort. It touches my soul. The other day, I realized someone who had more resources than me… Continue reading
The Miracle of Nature: Zos Chanukah, This is Chanukah; This is Chanukah, This is My Daughter
part 1: Zos Chanukah, This is Chanukah The holiday of Chanukah is about rededicating the altar in the Second Temple of Jerusalem after it had been defiled by the Greeks, in 139 B.C.E.. “Zos Chanukah, This is Chanukah”. The phrase is meant to connect to a verse in the Torah referring to the dedication of… Continue reading
Shinrin-Yoku, [forest bathing]
I’ve had a lifelong loving relationship with nature and animals. My first best friend was my neighbor’s Dalmatian dog, Smokey. I grew up in rural America on farms. Earth and trees were everything to me. I made pretend birthday cakes out of mud. I coated my five year old self in mud for the fun… Continue reading
They were there for me.
How do I write about a lifelong love? How do I put into words all I feel about them? Our history. Our relationship. Those I have known, touched, loved. Those I know of and yet to see. Those I see regularly and commune with and admire and strive to get the perfect picture that captures… Continue reading
Words on the Elevator Doors
It’s been over two years since I parked in that garage, walked those halls, and rode in that elevator. Today was for my own early morning and routine medical tests. We never came this early two years ago. Today I had my choice of parking spots. Sometimes, back then the garage would be so filled… Continue reading
Family, Friends, and Foes
Coming off a three-week-long Jewish holiday season that crescendoed with the idea of unity, love, and Oneness and segues into beginning again, has given me pause. I do so love a happy and purposeful beginning. If we are looking at cycles of life, then beginnings also remind us of endings that brought us around. Thoughts… Continue reading
Open Book
My life is an open book. It is a used book, With stained and torn pages, With some interesting and page-turner chapters, With as much content between the lines as on, And an oft misinterpreted cover. The fun, scary, difficult, Happy, liberating, fulfilling, And much appreciated part, Is now. Now is when I endeavor to… Continue reading
My life makes me cry
At 66 years old, you’d think I would have it all figured out by now. I don’t. And it’s frustrating, disheartening, and humiliating. I cry. A lot. I’m crying now. I’m the healthiest I’ve been in 15 years. Thank Goodness! It’s not enough. I need more energy, or more time, or more help, or more…what?… Continue reading
A Rich Life
I’ve always been rich and I have always lived in a fine house. In my lifetime I have lived in nearly three dozen homes. (34) More if we count the temporary lodgings of one to three months, but those were simply layovers on my travels through this life’s journey. Every house was special in some… Continue reading
The New Normal
Despite what my daughter says about the weekend, I see Sunday as the first day of the week. Today kicks off the beginning of a new week. Tomorrow night is the beginning of the Jewish New Year. Last week for many was the beginning of the new school year. Also, last week’s devastating destruction caused by… Continue reading
Sometimes, it’s okay.
Sometimes, it’s okay to sit still and contemplate, to think about life and meaning and whether to eat dinner at all. Sometimes, it’s okay to say no, to one more or a dozen more mundane tasks and the nagging inner voice that says, “do more, do more, do more.” Sometimes, it’s okay to be tired,… Continue reading
Sleeping around
Somewhere back in my early childhood before I started going to school, I had a habit that distressed my mother. Struck by the realization my parents were staying up way past my bedtime I made it my mission to find out why. It took a few nights, but I finally outlasted them. I lay awake… Continue reading
Highly sensitive
To get up every day to ‘what wonder my way comes’ is gratifying. We haven’t moved to a different home, but all the same I feel a shift occurring around us. I’ve mentioned it before, the KonMari Method, the method conceived by Marie Kondo, an organizing consultant; that my daughter and I are employing to… Continue reading