Life in General

Life In General: What’s Next??

That phrase has many connotations, doesn’t it? Over the past few months, it’s cropped up with alarming regularity, usually after a visit to a doctor’s office where one or the other of us has been diagnosed with some new ailment. “What’s next??” I exclaimed in exasperation last week when my bone density scan revealed that my long-stable osteopenia had developed into severe osteoporosis; and then my dentist found a tooth that needed a crown and possibly a root canal. 

But rather than considering myself a close ancestor to Job, thinking that whatever’s next is likely to be catastrophic rather than celebratory, I’ve decided to take control of that little phrase and turn it on its ear. So What’s Next becomes a rallying cry for branching out, ramping up, taking a chance. For looking forward and moving beyond. For deep cleansing breaths and kicking off the traces. 

Life In General: Sharing the Story

Happy Friday, and a happy official ending to the first full week of 2016. It’s been a busier one than I would have liked, especially after spending the two weeks of Christmastide doing virtually nothing and sleeping until 9 or 10 each morning. But we hit the ground running on Monday, and haven’t stopped since. 

Amidst rehearsals and meetings and doctor appointments this week, there was a lovely oasis of time on Tuesday evening...

Life In General: A Shiny New One

Here it is, a shiny new year. 

I’m really love New Year’s Day, and certainly not because of football. I love a clean slate, and what better one than a brand, spanking New Year, complete with new calendars, new notebooks, and fresh new opportunities. No matter what’s happened in the waning days of the old year, January First is a harbinger of possibility and change.

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Life In General: Passing It Down

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In the process of all that downsizing, clutter busting, junk clearing, and reorganizing we did when we moved three years ago, I often asked myself whether an item was something that might one day be passed down to future generations. I asked it about china and paintings and collectible figurines. I asked it about Christmas ornaments and record albums and books. I asked it about jewelry and electronics and furniture.

Truthfully, very little made that cut.

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On Aging: Stuck in the Middle With You (and you, and you, and you...)

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There’s a ton of us stuck in the middle together. Even just among myself and my friends, it would take more than the fingers and toes on both sides of my body to count the number of us who are trying to balance caring for aging parents with the needs of our own personal relationships, our children, our grandchildren. 

Not to mention, our own very personal needs and desires.

Balance is the key word to maintaining our equilibrium in the middle of this see-saw. It always feels a little precarious for me, and in the past week, one end of mine came to a thud on the ground.