“So, you’re really an empty nester now,” a friend said to me shortly after my son’s wedding last month. Her comment caught me a bit off guard, since my kids have been grown and gone for quite a while now. But with both of them now married, that makes my husband and me empty nesters in a whole new way. And it got us thinking about our house in a whole new way, too. Our son left home when he joined the Marines right out [...]
I’m still sorting and organizing pictures from my recent pilgrimage. Since we visited a number of churches, chapels, cathedrals and basilicas, many of my photos are of the beautiful artwork and architecture in each of them. Other photos are from different cultural and historical sites and activities – the Palace of Fine Arts, where we saw the stunning Folkloric Ballet of Mexico; the Museum of Anthropology; the site of what is believed to be the largest pyramid in the world, where we said prayers of [...]
As always, I spent some time thinking about what my New Year’s Resolution/s would be this year. Part of this process was reviewing my resolutions from the last few years – which is easy for me to do since I devote a column every year to the subject. It’s become a stroll down Memory Lane for me, as well as a good analytical tool. I can see which resolutions became habits and routines that I still follow today, as well as ones that I’m still [...]
If you were asked to list some of the different areas of your life, what categories would you use to describe them? They could be as basic as “personal” and “professional.” Or you might include family, friends, and faith. Leisure activities, hobbies, or travel. Or health and well-being – physically, financially, mentally, or spiritually. There’s really no end to the number or names of categories you can choose to catalog the events and activities of your life. This exercise is something I often do with [...]
A friend of mine is an avid reader. I am fascinated by the fact that she reads about a hundred books a year. What I find even more fascinating is that she owns very few books herself. One reason is that she downsized not long ago to a smaller living space. She had to be ruthless in getting rid of things, and extremely selective in what she kept. Another reason is that she lives near a library, which she considers her second home. At any [...]
I’ve decided to go back to school. Not for a Masters or Doctorate degree, and not by attending classes along with other students, or by taking classes online and working independently. Instead, I’m designing and following my own curriculum. The reason I’m doing this is that it occurred to me recently that there are a number of activities and events I’m involved in – both personal and professional – that I am having trouble accomplishing for various reasons. My big revelation was that many of [...]
“The more we simplify, the easier life is.” That was the bottom line, literally, in an email I received from a friend recently. Her email was about an article she had just read that had to do with cleaning out our closets. The first thought that popped into my head was, “When did she see my closet and realize how badly I needed this advice?” For the record, she’s never been near my closet, and that’s not why she emailed the article to me. The [...]
“I focus easily and naturally on what is important and rewarding to me, and let go gently and comfortably of what is not. I am accomplishing my goals and fulfilling my dreams.” Whether you would call that an affirmation, a mantra, positive thinking, or wishful thinking, it’s something I’ve been saying to myself several times a day for a few months now. And the reason I’m telling you about it is that it relates so strongly to what I wrote last week. My column last [...]
91.25 hours. Over the course of a year, that’s how much time you would spend on something if you devoted just 15 minutes a day to it. I mention this because my New Year’s Resolution last year was to spend 15 minutes a day decluttering. That might mean whittling down a stack of papers on the kitchen counter one day, cleaning out an overstuffed dresser drawer on another, and tackling an overloaded bookshelf in my office on a third. As I look back on the [...]