“Follow the light.” Those were the instructions given to me as I got ready for my first cataract surgery. And frankly, it made me nervous for a moment—just long enough to remember all the movies and stories in which someone died, or had a near-death experience, with a bright light beckoning them to the other side. I wasn’t really nervous about the surgery—not too much, anyway. Since the time I found out I needed it, I’ve talked to a number of people who’ve had it [...]
I’m on Day 15 of a 21-day challenge I started on April 4. Please don’t do the math. Not long ago, a friend of mine mentioned she was getting ready to begin a 21-day challenge for toning and strengthening her arms. A few days later, we had an unseasonably warm day, and I texted my friend this message: “I put on a short-sleeved shirt this morning and realized I REALLY need that 21-day arm challenge! Can you send me the link?” It was a pretty [...]
I just woke up from two unsettling dreams, the kind that made me think, after I popped awake, “Oh, thank God that was just a dream.” One of them was a variation of the standard “last day of school and l’m not ready for the big test” dream, although it was more complicated and intense than that. The other dream was a lot scarier. A Japanese Mafia-type man was forcing me to write propaganda, and threatening to kill my family if I didn’t cooperate. He [...]
I had a blog post written and almost ready to go last week. But before I could polish and post it, I had to take a slight detour, via ambulance, ending up in the hospital with internal bleeding caused by several small ulcers I didn’t know I had. After a few scary and painful days in the hospital, I’m home now, recovering and starting to feel like myself again. As always, after something bad happens in my life, I try to look for the good [...]
We just passed the one-year anniversary of my husband’s heart attack. It’s not something we went out to celebrate, but we did take notice and reflect. In some ways, it feels like it’s been much longer than a year, but in other ways, it feels more like, “One year? Already?” In many ways, he’s back to how he was before having a heart attack. In other ways, it’s changed both our lives. After his surgery, his doctors warned him it would be a full year [...]
I’ve decided that 2023 is going to be the Year of the Book. This is no relation to the Year of the Tiger, Rabbit, Ox, Dragon, Snake, or any other animal celebrated in the Chinese New Year. Instead, it’s related to my New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve realized for a while now that I’m not spending enough time, on a regular basis, on any of the books I’m writing. I have four that are in various stages of completion, from great-idea-and-outline-done to basically-finished-but-needs-a-bit-of-tweaking. And none of [...]
After a mid-December trip to California to spend a few days with our daughter as she recovered from surgery, we were home packing our bags again, this time for a trip to Minnesota – with an overnight stop in Chicago – to spend Christmas with our son, daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren. The night before we were scheduled to leave, however, we decided to cancel our trip. Although we had already dug through our closets for any cold-weather clothing we still owned – in anticipation of [...]
How do you express your thanks on Thanksgiving Day? Many people say a special blessing as they sit down to their Thanksgiving dinner. Some go around the table and have everyone name one or more of the people and things they are thankful for. For others it’s more private, with meditation or prayers of gratitude on their own. I usually do some combination of this, and this year, I decided to add something new. I made a list of things I am grateful for, running [...]
I know I’m a little late coming to the sourdough party. Bread-baking got really popular during the pandemic, when most of us were locked down and looking for things to do at home. Banana bread and sourdough bread seemed to be at the top of the list. I never got into bread-baking then, although I really like sourdough bread. I remember one time – long ago, during a vacation in San Francisco – buying a packet of sourdough starter from a little shop on Fisherman’s [...]