I started wearing glasses when I was in fifth grade. I still remember squinting at the blackboard, even from my desk in the second row. The teacher’s writing on the board seemed lighter and “fuzzier” than it used to be, and was getting harder and harder for me to read. It was such a gradual change that I didn’t realize I was the one who was changing. A standard vision test at school alerted my teacher, then my parents, to the problem. A trip to [...]
I had a medical procedure done this week, one of those “preventive maintenance” tests that should be done every so often – in this case, every ten years – once we reach a certain age. Preparing for it required following a low-fiber diet for five days. I could eat plenty of white bread, rice, and potatoes, but no whole wheat products or high-fiber cereals. Canned fruits and cooked vegetables were okay, but fresh fruits and raw vegetables were not. This was very unsettling to me. [...]
It’s New Year’s Resolution time, and I’ve been thinking about what change or improvement in myself I most want to make this year. It’s a tough choice, as I’ve got a lot of material to work with. Should I focus on getting rid of the extra pounds that I invariably add on over the holidays? Or tackle unfinished projects from the recent – or ancient – past? I could work at developing a good habit in some area of my life, or getting rid of [...]
I am currently in Uganda. While I'm gone, the Villager is rerunning some of my early favorites. The following column was first published on February 6, 2003. Someone called me “Tiny” the other day. Which was a whole lot nicer than Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy or Dopey. We were at Curves, and were right next to each other on the exercise equipment. She looked at me the way you look at someone you recognize, but can’t quite place. “Do you work for the city of Chanhassen?” she finally [...]
It happened again last week. And, just as it has in the past, it caught me completely off-guard. I was at 5:15 Mass on Ash Wednesday, and hoping that my stomach wouldn’t start growling during the quiet parts of the Mass. This was a possibility not only because it was getting close to dinner time, but because I had followed the Lenten restrictions for Ash Wednesday, which are to abstain from eating meat, to refrain from eating between meals, and to have only one full [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
“You’ve got to feed your soul.” This observation came from a neighbor I was talking to not long ago. He had just commented on a few of my recent columns, and asked about my work in Uganda. His company has sponsored some projects and programs in Africa, and we were talking about how satisfying and fulfilling it can be to take part in such activities. We also talked about how people can be drawn to different types of projects or problems or missions or cultures, [...]