I kept waiting for the phone to ring. It was Monday morning of last week – the day winter came quickly and decisively to Minnesota. I stood at my back door, looking out at the inch or so of snow that had come down already, and listening to the tap of icy rain on the windows as it started to cover everything with a thin, shiny layer. It was exactly the time I normally would have gotten a phone call from my dad, saying, “So [...]
Father’s Day is going to be bittersweet this year. The sweet part is that my husband has just returned home from a business trip, and we’ll be able to spend the weekend – particularly Sunday – catching up, relaxing, and celebrating Father’s Day. The not-so-sweet part is that this will be the first Father’s Day without my dad, who passed away in January. It still gnaws at me that I can’t call him every Sunday, as we’ve done ever since first moving away from the [...]
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 [...]
“I focus easily and naturally on what is important and rewarding to me, and let go gently and comfortably of what is not. I am accomplishing my goals and fulfilling my dreams.” Whether you would call that an affirmation, a mantra, positive thinking, or wishful thinking, it’s something I’ve been saying to myself several times a day for a few months now. And the reason I’m telling you about it is that it relates so strongly to what I wrote last week. My column last [...]
91.25 hours. Over the course of a year, that’s how much time you would spend on something if you devoted just 15 minutes a day to it. I mention this because my New Year’s Resolution last year was to spend 15 minutes a day decluttering. That might mean whittling down a stack of papers on the kitchen counter one day, cleaning out an overstuffed dresser drawer on another, and tackling an overloaded bookshelf in my office on a third. As I look back on the [...]
When I was very young, Santa Claus used to visit our house on Christmas Eve. Not in the middle of the night – leaving presents under the tree when we were nestled all snug in our beds – but early in the evening, when we were still up and wide awake. I remember one year when we needed to make a quick trip to the grocery store on Christmas Eve. We kids were distraught, afraid we might miss Santa’s visit. Although my mom assured us [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The stacks of books are gone from the end table next to the sofa. So are the magazines, mail, and other papers that used to live and grow on my kitchen counter. The desk in the kitchen is so empty and inviting that I actually sit down and work there. And several shelves, drawers, and cabinets in my home and office look like the “after” photo in a before-and-after makeover. Which, of course, is exactly what they are. My New Year’s Resolution this year was [...]