Columns – Page 20 – FindYourBuriedTreasure

A Confusing Day

For some reason, all day yesterday – Thursday – it felt to me like it was Friday. That used to happen often on days right before or after holidays or vacations, but not since we retired and moved to Georgia three years ago, when there was no longer much difference between weekdays and weekends. And it certainly hasn’t happened since stay-at-home guidelines went into effect in mid-March. I can’t attribute the feeling to the 4th of July weekend coming up, because holidays going back as [...]

By bettyliedtke|July 3rd, 2020|Columns, Faith, Family, Holidays, Values|Comments Off

Homebound

Not long ago, my book club read A Gentleman in Moscow, a novel about a man who was put under house arrest by the Bolsheviks in 1922, and ordered to spend the rest of his life in the elegant hotel he had been living in for several years. He was warned that if he set foot outside the hotel, he would be shot. I’m starting to understand how he felt. Not about getting shot if I step outside, of course, and certainly not the “elegant [...]

By bettyliedtke|June 26th, 2020|Columns, Health and Well-being|Comments Off

A nod and a smile could lift our hearts

“My head understands it, but it was hard on my heart.” I heard that last night from a woman in British Columbia. I was attending a special “Pandemic Presentations” Toastmasters meeting via Zoom, and the person giving the speech – who is single and lives alone in her apartment – was talking about the feelings of isolation she was experiencing while social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. At one point, she talked about how she feels when she goes outside for a walk and some [...]

By bettyliedtke|June 19th, 2020|Columns, Health and Well-being, Toastmasters, Values|Comments Off

Words (NOT) of Wisdom

I had a Zoom meeting a few days ago with other members of a neighborhood club I belong to. The main item on the agenda – other than just touching base and catching up with each other – was voting to elect a new treasurer, since our previous one had to resign due to health issues. After the vote, our new treasurer shared the story that when interviewing for her first job, she had to take a number of tests on various subjects at the [...]

By bettyliedtke|June 12th, 2020|Achieving Dreams and Goals, Columns, Gifts and Talents, Quotes and Sayings, Writing|4 Comments

A plea for help

My blog this week is a plea for help, one that will benefit people in desperate circumstances in one of the poorest countries in the world. Yet it has to do with the medical crisis that is affecting us all – here in the United States and around the world, including the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Southwest Uganda. Those who have been regular readers of my column and blog know about my work in Uganda with Pathways to Hope Africa, including several trips to the [...]

By bettyliedtke|June 5th, 2020|Columns, Health and Well-being, Making a Difference, Uganda, Values|Comments Off

No black or white answers

“We’re black, aren’t we?” That’s the question my friend’s five-year-old granddaughter asked her this morning. Her heart broke when she heard the question, and mine broke when she told me about it. It broke even more when she told me her granddaughter’s next question, in which she asked about a close family friend. “She’s white, isn’t she?” It’s not as though her granddaughter didn’t recognize the difference in skin color before, it’s just that it didn’t matter. But now it did, enough to bring questions [...]

By bettyliedtke|May 29th, 2020|Columns, Family, Making a Difference, Values|Comments Off

A celebration of friendship

“It’s amazing, after not connecting, in some cases for 20+ years, how much has changed. But in some ways, it’s stayed the same. I guess that’s friendship.” That was a statement in an email from one of my “old college buds” after we had a reunion via Zoom a few nights ago. I couldn’t have said it better myself. We were a group of friends who met in college, and stayed close even after graduating within a few years of each other in the early- to [...]

By bettyliedtke|May 22nd, 2020|Columns, Family, Holidays, Travel, Values|2 Comments

Old Friends, New View

I had a visit this week from a friend who lives in Canada and whom I haven’t seen in more than three years. Next week I will be visiting her in Thunder Bay where she lives. Also, if our schedules work out, next week I will also be visiting with some old friends from college. We stayed close after we all graduated, but over the years, when jobs, moves, families, and other circumstances took us in different directions – literally and figuratively – we gradually [...]

By bettyliedtke|May 15th, 2020|Columns, Family, Travel|Comments Off

A Different Mother’s Day

I think it was Erma Bombeck who said, “Mother’s Day is the day on which the family gathers together to thank their mom for everything she does – like cook a big Mother’s Day dinner for everyone.” Actually, Mother’s Day is a day on which many families traditionally take Mom out for brunch or dinner, so she doesn’t have to cook. But there’s nothing traditional about Mother’s Day this year. Most restaurants around the country are still closed, or unavailable for in-house dining. Travel is [...]

By bettyliedtke|May 8th, 2020|Columns, Family, Health and Well-being, Holidays, Quotes and Sayings|Comments Off

Creative Coping

“Creative Coping” was the theme of our Toastmasters meeting the other night. I think that’s a good description of all of our lives right now. (Our meetings, by the way, are held online via Zoom for the time being, which is how we are creatively coping with stay-at-home orders and guidelines.) Day by day and week by week, we’re all finding and implementing new ways to cope with the restrictions meant to keep us safe and to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Along the [...]

By bettyliedtke|May 1st, 2020|Columns, Family, Health and Well-being, Holidays, Toastmasters|Comments Off

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