Remember the giving as well as the thanks
I’m doing Thanksgiving a little differently this year. That doesn’t mean I’ll be making any changes to the traditional meal, or abandoning time-honored practices and customs that go along with the day. And it certainly doesn’t mean I won’t be thinking, talking, or writing about all of the people and things I am grateful for. What it means is that before I focus on the “thanks” part of Thanksgiving this year, I’m going to concentrate on the “giving” part. I [...]
The changes we go through when a friend moves away
I had brunch last weekend with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. Our schedules aren’t very compatible these days, so when we want to get together, it often takes us a number of tries before we’re able to find a date and time that works for us both. But it’s always worth it once we do. The first thing we did after we settled in and ordered our food was to bring each other up-to-date on work, family, [...]
A doomsday dream brings reality to life
I had a really weird dream the other night. And the weirdest thing about it was seeing the ways in which my dream world overlapped with the real one. In the dream, I was talking with a friend about the devastating state of the world today. We were in a barren, outdoor setting – the kind you see in a post-apocalyptic or zombie movie. There was another catastrophic danger on the way, but I don’t remember now whether it was [...]
An unusual position gives a different view of the world
Picture yourself sitting on the floor, your back pressed firmly against the wall, your legs straight out in front of you. Then imagine pivoting at the hips so that you are now lying on the floor with your legs against the wall, stretched up toward the ceiling. That’s the position I found myself in on Friday night, at the end of a “Gentle Yoga” class I was attending. I’m not a regular yoga practitioner, but the event was a fundraiser [...]
A weekend road trip leads to Thunder Bay
The bus left Rochester at 5:30 a.m. on Friday. It pulled into Bloomington – where I boarded – at 7:00. After one last stop to pick up a few more people in Duluth, we continued on to our final destination of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Actually, we had one additional stop, a brief one at the border crossing. We didn’t pick up any additional passengers there, but we did impress the Customs agent – or at least made him smile – [...]
Our stories can save lives
It just happened again. I was talking with someone I’ve known for quite a while now – she’s the founder of a women’s writing group I belong to – and our conversation turned to medical issues. At one point, I made a reference to the heart damage I sustained years ago from chemotherapy, and then I saw my friend’s jaw drop. She stared at me for a moment before replying. “That’s two things I just learned about you that I [...]