Each year since Tony died, I have taken the kids on a vacation the week between Christmas and New Years. We’ve been to Disney World, Jamaica, Mexico, and this year I took the boys on their first ever cruise. I find myself counting these vacations to remember how many holidays he’s missed. Traveling over the […]
Blog
A Write-ous Birthweek
The other day during a Zoom meeting, a colleague noted that most people stop reading at the third paragraph of articles and blog posts. I think about that as we adjust to a new year. I find myself reimagining ways to improve my writing approach and practice to increase focus and clarity. With so much […]
Enjoy Life
I think I’ve settled on an over-arching theme I’d like to personally have for 2025 and that theme is to enjoy life. I realized that my determination to simplify some things so far this year and clean out unused clutter also aligns with this. When things are easy to get to, it makes it so […]
Take Off
These days, Thursday morning is ordinarily the time I finish writing these posts. It’s a reasonable goal that I seldom accomplish. I give the piece a “final” reading but never publish it immediately. Usually, I spend additional time revising or editing. For many reasons, I can be slow to put pen to paper. Maybe I […]
How do we know?
Are we truly getting better? I’m trying to remember what I was looking for when seeking signs that I am doing “better” in the early days of being widowed. If I remember correctly, I took stock quite often in the beginning. I didn’t lose my keys yesterday. Only melted down over my bills twice […]
Weather Delays
I’m sorry, I missed my post last week. The kids and I traveled over the holiday break. We were supposed to be home Saturday night. As luck would have it, there was also ice and snow headed to our hometown Saturday. A few days earlier I moved our flight time up a few hours to […]
Back and Forth and Back Again
Yesterday was our SSI Regional Group meetup. Four of us met for lunch at a local pizzaria grill type place. My co-leader and I have both been widowed for 12/13 years. The other two ladies that braved the snowy weather yesterday are more newly widowed, both less than a year into this often times unimaginable […]
Route 66 and a Trip Around the Sun
The first week of any new year can bring an unsettling mix of relief, new direction and incentive, angst, apathy and procrastination. Even if your holiday season was emotionally challenging with some bouts of nostalgic melancholy, the quiet inertia of the post-holiday season can be a let down when the world asks us to […]
2025 is Coming in Hot
Normally right before the new year, especially on New Years Eve, I look forward to a fresh new year and have a positive feeling. This was the first year in awhile, that I came into the new year cautious with a feeling of anxiety and unease. Regardless of how I feel, I still try to […]
Preparing for the Journey
Eight days from today Lola the Pup and I bid farewell to Robyn. Then, for the third consecutive year, we’re off to our Winter quarters in the American Southwest. I take this annual extended journey solely for me. The destination is not nearly as important as the journey. No one lives without regret; it’s a […]
TIME
Past to Present to Future In the 17th century, physicist Isaac Newton saw time as an arrow fired from a bow, traveling in a direct, straight line and never deviating from its path. It is January 8th where the movement of time is already on display in the year 2025. Only seven days […]
The Cycle of Time
And so begins another year. Another year of accepting a reality that looked so different than what I thought life would be. This year seemed to have started off so hectic. From another holiday season where it just felt like I was running on fumes trying to keep up with the world, yet still trying […]