We’ve all been there. You’re in a situation that pushes all your buttons. But you don’t want to wimp out. You don’t want to be the panicked nut job of the group. This happened to me at Ireland’s Blarney Castle. What’s so hard about kissing a rock, I thought? I was to find out. No […]
Have you heard of the teacup list? Instead of the bucket list with its dramatic, “before-I-die” goals, we have the teacup list. Instead of feeling panicked you haven’t gone on that cross-country road trip or hiked Thailand or parachuted in the Gobi desert, you shrink all expectations. With this in mind, here in no particular order are the small (okay, very small) things I wish to do this summer…
Many times you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. I always knew I had a wonderful father. But now that it’s been almost a year since he’s passed, the full impact of what I’ve lost is sinking in. Here are 8 traits he had that I believe go into making a great […]
Some people don’t believe in aging. My grandmother was one of them. I realized this as I stood in the Hyannis Bus Station one afternoon in June of 1974. I was seventeen, had just graduated high school, and grateful my parents had agreed to let me stay with Nana for the summer. Five minutes passed, […]
Some people love to shop and God bless them. But I see a strange phenomenon in my part of Connecticut. Retail stores are closing, lots of them. And when I look at these empty storefronts, I feel this odd, misplaced sense of guilt. Am I partly responsible? You see, I never, ever, walk into stores […]
Who knew? We’ve never owned this kind of dog. She’s a Yorkie/Papillion mix terrier with emphasis on Terrier. Apparently, these dogs were bred in England to go down badger, rabbit, and fox holes. This explains a lot. In fact, we’ve had Libby two months and here are 6 sentences I never thought I’d hear myself […]
You think life is one way, but then realize its not. In fact, its different than you imagined. This happened to me recently when I had lunch with my mother who’s in her 80s. That’s when I saw I have this whole aging thing wrong and maybe even backwards. Here’s what I discovered… You […]
It happened when I least expected it. My son Patrick was in 7th grade and restless, looking for something in his life. One day he picked up an old practice bass of my husband’s. I remember hearing those first tentative plunks from our basement, having no idea they sounded a new chapter, not only […]
You know the feeling. You get comfortable in life until something pulls you out of your routine. You’re forced to stop, watch, and listen. This happened last Good Friday when my 22 year-old son Paul ended up in the emergency room. Thankfully, it wasn’t serious, but the ER couldn’t be avoided. Paul sliced his thumb […]
