Life – a cup at a time
But We Can Build It Back I don’t think anyone would disagree that our society in the last few years has gone crazy. So many factors are involved, but I think one of the keys is that we’ve lost our sense of community. This is not “just” an American problem. But the situation in the …
Great Expectations Meet Mundane Fails I took an unplanned road trip a short time ago. It wasn’t at all what I expected or felt I needed. My husband scored a job 1500 miles away from home. He expected to be staying in a motel and took the absolute minimum. But after getting there, he found …
Seek Better Instead of Normal I realize it’s a bold statement to say that normal doesn’t exist. But stop and think about what normal really is. Is it average? That’s merely a percentage in the middle. By definition, at least two-thirds are on either end. Is it common? But what’s common for your community or …
But it might not be the “old dog” you expected. In this case, I’m the old dog. Like most people, I don’t like failure or admitting I was wrong, but there it was, and there I was. Here’s what happened. I shared a few weeks ago about Star, the new four-legged addition to our family. …
A dream interpreted Unlike many people during the last several months, I haven’t been keen on deep cleaning, or reorganizing, or new hobbies, or cooking, or much of anything constructive. I’ve spent a great deal of my time reading fiction — my historical escape mechanism. Last week, that suddenly changed, and I found myself deep …
I’ve returned to the work world just as many of my peers are about to retire and leave it behind. It’s both harder and more rewarding than I anticipated. The first question people ask is, Why go back? The simple answer is money. House payments and health insurance are the bulk of that. But the …
I envy those who aren’t cursed by the need to see the big picture — those who see the world from one perspective in black and white, right and wrong, us and them. Once you begin to realize that much of life is really gray, it’s hard to go back. And it’s uncomfortable as hell. …
We all face volcanoes in life, whether we realize it or not. The recent eruption of White Island/Whakaari in New Zealand has had me pondering this thought. Maybe it’s because I was there for Mt. St. Helens in 1980. For anyone who was in the Pacific Northwest, they can tell you exactly what they were …
Thanksgiving is one of those events than can be an emotional roller coaster. As a result, people seem to either love it or hate it. As a child, I loved Thanksgiving. Extended family would gather at our house, both leaves were added to the table, and the fancy linen tablecloth was brought out. Even when …
On August 31, 2019, my path crossed that of a mass killer. I live in Odessa, Texas, and was in the shopping area where most of the random shooting took place. Going from store to store on a hunt for a new outdoor grill, five minutes later at one intersection — or earlier at another …