I was on the phone with Aunt Vera, an amazing lady who possesses 101 years of wisdom and a mind that’s still sharp as a tack. After we wished each other a Merry Christmas, we talked about how different Christmas was this year and how sorry we were not to be able to see her in person, as we usually do over the holidays. We talked about how excited we were at the news about COVID vaccines, and how happy we will be to visit [...]
There are many words we could use to describe the year 2020, and “surreal” is probably one of the kindest. The same can be said for how we’ll be celebrating Christmas this year. Like many people, my husband and I will be staying home for the holidays, rather than going home for the holidays to celebrate with family members who live in other parts of the country. It’s not our preference, of course, but we keep reminding ourselves that by staying safe at home this [...]
Thanksgiving is next week, and it will be different this year than ever before. Like many people, we will be staying home rather than traveling to be with family members in different parts of the country. And like them, our hearts are torn over not being able to spend the holiday with loved ones, whether they live across the street, across the country, or “over the river and through the woods,” as the old song goes. This is also a year when many people are [...]
Eight months. That’s exactly how long it’s been since I went into lockdown. I remember the date precisely because, like today, it was a Friday the 13th. I had just been diagnosed with diabetes, and on that day in March I drove to the pharmacy to pick up a supply of lancets and test strips for my brand-new practice of doing finger sticks to test my blood sugar. But first I had a lunch date with a friend, not knowing then that it would be [...]
I know what I want for Christmas: a magic wall. Like many Americans, I’ve had difficulty tearing myself away from election news coverage this past week. I’ve watched split screens of four different television stations at once in order to see different predictions, projections, and perspectives, as well as the latest up-to-the-minute ballot counts in each of the battleground states. One of the things I’ve been mesmerized by is a “magic wall” – the name given to a giant computer monitor showing a map of the [...]
My father-in-law passed away last week. When it was clear he wouldn’t be with us much longer, my husband drove to Chicago to be with him during those last few days. Before he left, we made the agonizing decision for me to stay home. Actually, making the decision wasn’t the agonizing part; accepting it was. In earlier times – meaning any time before the pandemic – we’d have been traveling back and forth to Chicago regularly, especially as my father-in-law’s health deteriorated. But since March, [...]
I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday. Nothing’s wrong, and the doctor gave me an “All clear” report, along with the standard advice to come back in a year, or earlier if something comes up in between now and then. I’ve always stayed up to date with my annual check-ups, and any other medical appointments that are warranted on a regular or occasional basis. More and more often, I seem to be hearing, “At your age, you should probably think about seeing….” Or after raising [...]
“Whenever there’s a mess like this, I try to look for the message in the mess,” my friend told me a few days ago. “And then I try to find the miracle in the message.” As you might guess, my friend is a very faith-filled person. I have seen her step out in faith when most people – myself included – would be paralyzed by fear, indecision, or doubt. The statement she made came as she was telling me about a close friend of hers [...]
“We’ll be starting the meeting with a brief yoga session.” These are not words I expected to hear prior to a meeting I recently attended via Zoom. Especially since the meeting had nothing to do with exercise, meditation, or health and well-being. Still, I was game, so I put my exercise mat in front of the computer, put on a pair of stretchy, comfortable pants – not yoga pants, officially, but they would do – and got ready for the session. The meeting was a [...]