“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll be among the stars.” “If I didn’t try to do twice as much as I could, I wouldn’t accomplish half as much as I do.” I’ve always been inspired by these quotes, and I think they’re especially valuable as we make our New Year’s Resolutions. That is, those of us who still do. I heard on the radio the other day that only 30% of Americans still make New Year’s Resolutions, although I don’t know where [...]
Part of Newton’s First Law of Motion—which I’m paraphrasing—states that a body in motion will remain in motion, and a body at rest will remain at rest, until acted upon by another force. I’m planning to use that as my legal defense. Not that my body has been at rest. But my blog has. My last post said that I was going to take a summer break and be off-line for a few weeks. That was on July 1. Obviously, a few weeks turned into [...]
A lot of people honked their horns and waved, or gave us a “thumbs up” as they drove past. But I saw three “thumbs down” signals, and a handful—no pun intended—of middle fingers. One elderly man shouted “F*** you!” several times while waiting for the traffic light to change, and another rolled down his window to yell out, “Are y’all getting paid?” Most of the responses, however, were positive and supportive. My husband and I did something on Saturday that I can’t remember us ever [...]
One of the members of my writing group is a woman from South Korea. She’s had a difficult life, both there and here, and has shared with us some heartfelt and thoughtful observations about her life and experiences—again, both there and here. At our last meeting, she read a piece that touched on New Year’s Resolutions, noting that once, when she had a January appointment with her dentist, she asked him what his New Year’s Resolutions were. He said he didn’t make any. She wrote [...]
Well, it’s that time of year again, when we turn over the last page of the calendar—those of us who still use paper calendars, that is—and shake our heads as we wonder out loud: “Where did the year go?” Even though Christmas sales and decorations now start showing up around July, the Christmas season still unofficially starts on the day after Thanksgiving. And since Thanksgiving this year was November 28, the last date it’s possible to be, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is crunched [...]
“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Maybe, but I’ve got some new thoughts about names. I have a cousin named Katrina. I’ve always loved that name—and my cousin. But today, if you say “Katrina,” it’s not my cousin that comes to mind first. It’s the devastating hurricane that killed more than a thousand people in 2005. The city of New Orleans was one of the hardest hit, and damage from the [...]
It’s all relative. During the 18 years we lived in Minnesota, we drove to the Chicago area—where most of our relatives still lived—at least two or three times a year. It was a seven- or eight-hour drive, and made for a long day, especially when the kids were young and when winter weather was especially wintery. When we moved to Georgia seven years ago, our daughter was living in Florida. It was roughly an eight-hour drive to see her, and we never had to worry [...]
“Advice is what you ask for when you know the answer, but wish you didn’t.” I don’t know what philosopher, comedian, or entrepreneur first said that, but I do recall chuckling the first time I read it. And I agree there’s some truth to it. After all, when we’re dealing with complex issues in our lives, or trying to decide on next steps or a course of action, we often find that the answers we were looking for were inside of us all along. We [...]
Okay, raise your hand if you’ve already said – or if someone has said to you – “September?! I can’t believe it’s September already!” Full disclosure: My hand is raised, too. The older we get, the more quickly time seems to fly. Still, there’s something about the month of September that really drives this home. I don’t know if it’s because school starting up again is such a stark milestone – even if we don’t have school-age children anymore, and even if school now starts [...]
I try not to write about the same thing twice in a row, but the blog about t-shirt messages warranted a follow-up. And since both posts were a bit heavy-handed, touching on censorship, violence, and discrimination, I thought I would give the topic one more shot, but on a lighter note. So I’m sharing some of my favorite t-shirt messages. One that always makes me laugh said, “If you can remember the 60s, you weren’t really there.” I was in high school in the late [...]
Subscribe to the Blog and never miss a post!
