Columns – Page 53 – FindYourBuriedTreasure

A change of plans brought family together

My dad, who just turned 86, fell in the shower not long ago. He banged up his elbow pretty badly and needed stitches. He then developed an infection, which did not respond to antibiotics, and ended up in the hospital having surgery on his arm. He’s now at a care center that provides rehab and therapy. So my husband, my sister and I decided to drive to Chicago over the Thanksgiving weekend and spend time with family there rather than celebrating the holiday here at [...]

By bettyliedtke|December 6th, 2013|Columns, Family, Health and Well-being, Holidays|Comments Off

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 want to spend time reflecting [...]

By bettyliedtke|November 28th, 2013|Columns, Family, Holidays, Values|Comments Off

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, and other news. When we [...]

By bettyliedtke|November 22nd, 2013|Columns|Comments Off

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 asteroid hurtling toward earth, [...]

By bettyliedtke|November 15th, 2013|Columns, Faith, Writing|Comments Off

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 that a friend of mine [...]

By bettyliedtke|November 8th, 2013|Columns, Health and Well-being|Comments Off

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 – when we sang the first [...]

By bettyliedtke|November 1st, 2013|Columns, Toastmasters, Travel|Comments Off

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 never knew before,” she said, [...]

By bettyliedtke|October 25th, 2013|Columns, Health and Well-being|2 Comments

Making a game out of healthy habits has built-in rewards

I read an entertaining column in the weekend magazine of the StarTribune last Sunday, by a woman who was enjoying her new “toy:” a clip-on gadget that’s today’s version of a pedometer. Not only did it keep track of how many steps she took in a day, but it registered how many of those steps were going up and down stairs. She was excited about the fact that it was motivating her to do things she hadn’t been doing before, such as parking far away [...]

By bettyliedtke|October 18th, 2013|Accountability, Columns, Health and Well-being|Comments Off

Put Your “Brave Mask” On

It was early on a Saturday morning, and I was getting frustrated. I was working on the book I’m writing about my first trip to Uganda, and I was on the very last section of the book. I had planned to spend the whole morning writing, and I knew exactly what I wanted to say. But the words just weren’t coming together. This actually happens to me a lot when I’m writing, and I’ve learned through experience that the best way to handle it is [...]

By bettyliedtke|October 11th, 2013|Columns, Toastmasters, Uganda, Writing|Comments Off

A good deed feeds the heart and soul

I was in Hopkins last week getting some service done on my car. The dealership where I bought the car and where I used to get my service work done went out of business not long ago, so I only recently started going to the place in Hopkins. Whenever I take my car in for service, I usually pack enough work to do – reading, writing, and whatever I can fit into a tote bag – and just wait there while the work is being [...]

By bettyliedtke|October 4th, 2013|Columns, Respect, Values|Comments Off

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