Years ago, when my husband and I had breakfast at a diner with our daughter, Sara, and our grandchildren, Lauren & Ethan, we’d play “connect the dots” on the back of a paper placemat that Sara would make a series of dots on. In “Dots and Boxes,” around since the late 1800s, players add horizontal […]
Category Archives: My Journeys
There’s so much we’re visually aware of if we have the gift of sight: the smile on a loved one’s face, a kitchen overflowing with unused items, flowers in full bloom, sorrow when someone homeless is sleeping on a park bench. The list goes on and on. And so much is unseen through our eyes, like sorrow and […]
The flickering filament, barely lighting the room, reminds me of fireflies, the soft-winged beetles whose bioluminescent glow, regulated by the oxygen in their organs, attracts a partner. I love these flying rays of joy. I dance with them, honored to be part of their ceremony, aware of the fleeting hours this show will be on […]
In our lifetimes, most of us wear many hats: parent, grandparent, sister, brother, friend, politician, nurse, writer, partner, artist, banker, chef—the list can be never-ending. What are your roles? Are there many in each day? Under those hats, we sometimes put on masks: serious, happy, fulfilled, peaceful, available, generous, confident, approachable, knowledgeable—this list, too, goes […]
This is a story about the goodness of humans mixed with the apprehension of challenges. I love people. I’ve had primarily beautiful experiences with fellow humans. (Of course, there’ve been dark days when I’ve been scared, hurt, or felt like I was going it alone. I imagine some of you may have experienced that too.) […]
Today is my grandson Ethan’s sixteenth birthday. It seems like it was just yesterday when he was born. I remember holding him in the NICU, praying for Sara, my daughter, and Ethan to be healthy (Thank You, God, they were.) Years have flown by. Ethan plays basketball and soccer, has wonderful friends, is intelligent, creative, witty, and […]
Hearts will be broken—and thankfully often mended—many times in one’s life. Human angels guide us until we stop and no longer need them once we pass through the veil to the other side (perhaps they hang out with us there, too!). Many of those broken hearts leave our planet much too early (for me). Awareness, […]
I woke up much too early again this morning, but, in an interesting twist, it was positive because I could make my tea before we were without power. Once there was no electricity, the heating pad couldn’t be turned on to help with the arm I hurt (unintentionally, of course); I didn’t throw my daily […]
Sometimes, I feel like I’m in perpetual “Groundhog Day” (like the 1993 movie Bill Murray starred in). Each set of twenty-four hours seems like a repetition of the one before—learned patterns, a sense of life impotence, the same mundanity or routine. Yet, lying in bed this morning at 6:00, awoken by a jarring alarm, I […]
Apprehension. Unease. Doubt. Anxieties many people I know experience, just as I do. How do we handle angst or process the restless feeling that, for many, often permeates day-to-day life? Years ago, my friend Jill said to me, “We want to know what’s going on in our world, but what we read or hear frightens us, we […]
Awareness and acknowledgment may seem inconsequential, but, in reality, they make a significant difference in our planet’s energy. I’ve always been mindful of sharing what I think if it’s something positive and will walk up to perfect strangers and compliment their hair or outfit or the cuteness of their child and never once has it not elicited a […]
Yesterday, the faith community I’m part of dedicated a new space. It’s not a traditional church; it’s not even a building we own because our philosophy has always been to use our resources to create a safe place where love is paramount, a sense of community is critical, and we can be genuine with each […]
Expectations speak to desired outcomes like: trust, belief, safety, possibility, anticipation or, looking forward. They’re sometimes an assumption, but often they’re deeply rooted longings bolstered by the faith that something petitioned for or desperately needed will come to fruition. What are your great expectations? I asked myself, “what do I desire to create or achieve with this year that’s […]
Nocturnal Panic Attacks False Awakenings Lucid Dreaming They’re all genuine and can make you believe you’re physically dying. The illusion of waking up even though you’re still asleep involves experiences that seem completely real. Eventually, you often become cognizant that you’re actually in a dream, one foot in the tangible world, the other in an altered state. […]
Part 1: Sleepless in Emmaus It was 4:40 on this last day of 2022 when I woke up. Thankfully, the early rising wasn’t because of a full-blown nightmare like I had the previous night, where it physically felt like I had a heart attack. Frantic and powerless, I was pushing back against a reality I […]
On this day after Christmas, the house is silent—too quiet, honestly—with only Vero (our empathic little rescue dog) and me sitting in the library as the heater whirs on, staving off the winter that won’t officially end until March 20th. The past two days were a whirlwind—leaving our home for church on Christmas Eve with […]
Yesterday, I ran a few errands, then did some final decorating— stringing the Christmas cards we received from friends so I could hang them across the doors. After all, if we’re blessed to receive these greetings of love, shouldn’t we somehow acknowledge them? Too often, I forget what really matters, caught up in the secular […]
This morning, I woke up again with a mental Christmas “still to-do list” that rivals most of those I make. I backed out of the garage and headed down the cul-de-sac, turning left onto St. Peter’s Road. As I round the corner, I again see “The Bicycle Tree.” This isn’t a tiny faux tree adorned […]
A few weeks ago, I unpacked Christmas. In the boxes were fragile glass ornaments, precious works of art with”best Nana ever,” and the little drummer boys my daughters, Sara and Erin, made with their grandmother more than thirty years ago. There were gifts from friends and heartfelt pieces my Mom gave me. Some are decades […]
The human brain is only three pounds but has a trillion cells and a rapidly firing hundred billion neurons. Our cerebrum’s options are practically limitless, yet we humans often get caught up in minuscule life routines, forgetting to see other pictures of life different from our norms or what’s right in front of us. Reflecting on life this […]
There was a man who, long ago, created a life filled with unbridled joy and an awareness of the universe’s amazingness. Nevertheless, as in many stories, a shift took place; it started slowly but kept building into a flame consuming the truth until he didn’t recognize his value, his verve, or the pain that was […]
After another night of bad dreams, I woke up tired and disoriented. I called the new day to me, trying to shake off the dark, pulling myself together (literally curling up in a fetal position), then getting myself together emotionally. I’ve never understood the calamity my brain creates as I attempt to sleep when I […]
A few years ago, as I sat writing at my desk before the sun rose, I inaudibly heard “look up” and saw that sections of the library’s cathedral ceiling were, falling! My first step was emptying the room. Art, photos, gifts, precious mementos from my daughters and grandchildren, and hundreds of books (yep, I counted […]
This morning—at 5:13 in our Northern Hemisphere—marked the summer solstice, one of my favorite days because it marks the day with the longest organic luminosity. (Summer is also my favorite season.) As I think about this light, I am aware of all the darkness on our planet—this celestial body rotating on its axis, orbiting around […]
World Awareness:Children in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya are starving to death while many in our country throw food away. Often, we avoid the images of emaciated humans turning instead to gaze at our beautiful homes with televisions, beds to sleep on, and cabinets and refrigerators overflowing with food, as others watch their children die, helpless […]
peace full home®—intentional living 