Early morning New Year’s Day, I heard what sounded like something falling. The noise startled me, but more concerning was a sound that could only be described as a jet engine taking off. I wandered through the house trying to locate the source, and thought it might be the attic fan. I turned the switch to the “off” position and went to bed. At two a.m., I heard the sound again. Since my arthritis had been acting up, I limped through the house, but couldn’t pinpoint the origin of the noise. I finally took the chairlift to the basement and discovered the furnace was vibrating. I went upstairs ..read more

Sometimes we don’t like a good year to end, and other times we are more than happy to reach the end of a chapter of our lives and move on to the next one. Looking back on my life, I can think of a few years that were filled with sadness: 1990, 2005, 2012, and now 2024. I know there were others too, but I don’t want to fill the page up with numbers. A new year isn’t just flipping a page on the calendar; it’s putting up a new calendar. You have a fresh start until you begin to fill the pages with appointments, reminders, and, hopefully, some fun events. Of course, many people use electronic cal ..read more

My family gifted me the Willow Tree angel “Courage” at a time when I needed to be reminded just how much courage it takes to live one day at a time. My sisters and sister-in-law had just helped me plan Harold’s funeral, and we stopped at the flower shop so I could order a casket spray. That’s when my sister-in-law spotted “Courage.” How appropriate, how timely. The past few months have been a blur of emotions as Harold and I navigated the hospital and nursing home cycle. I cheerleaded Harold through physical therapy with the hope that he would be able to return home. On good days, I would get ..read more

The thing I liked best about the house that Jim and I built was the windows. Looking out a window is a way to connect with the world outside while being all comfy inside. I often sat in my living room and looked out the patio windows to the woods behind our house. I remember seeing birds and squirrels in the summer and on cold winter days. From the kitchen, I could look across the yard and see the little house next door where my mother-in-law lived. Deer often came into the yard to browse for fruit on the ground. Now, as I remember those days, I realize that I was blessed to have lived during ..read more

Some people have an ability to meditate and turn off their thoughts. My mind, on the other hand, just gets busier, the more I try to clear it. I’ve always had an overactive mind and sometimes it is a challenge to figure out how to turn it off long enough to sleep. The more stressful my life is, the more active my brain. Caregiving is a special kind of stress where worry is a thundercloud ready to send bolts of lightning crashing down into the caregiver’s soul. It’s hard not to lose the sense of self while focusing on another’s health needs. A mind numbing tiredness turns into exhaustion durin ..read more

  Last night, my sleep was disturbed by voices. I was beginning to think that I had gone completely bonkers, but couldn’t understand what the voices were saying. At least I wasn’t obeying odd voices in my head. The voices stopped and I heard the national anthem. The music of the Star Spangled Banner brought me out of my sleep. No, it wasn’t internal, so I got out of bed to investigate. I checked the TV in the office, the TV in the living room, and the radio in the kitchen.  All were silent. I returned to the bedroom and noticed that the sound bar on the top of the TV was lit up. Yes ..read more

The ghosts and goblins of All Hallows’ Eve are lurking in the dark ready to jump out from behind that old dead tree to send shivers of fright down our spines. Since we associate Halloween with scary beings that go bump in the night, it is a good time to talk about what frightens us. The scene is set for me to talk about the things that scare us. As I sit in my office working on this article, the wind howls around the corner of the house and branches scrape against the window. In fact, the unusual sounds are downright creepy. Although some of the surveys show slightly different results, I’m go ..read more

We recently bought a handicap step stool with a grab bar from Amazon. The item listed “some assembly required.” I would consider that a warning label, but my husband saw it only as an inconvenience. The day the package arrived, he wanted to put the pieces together. Being a typical man, he threw the instructions aside and began assembling the step stool. After working on it for a while, we hit a snag when we couldn’t, metaphorically speaking, get the square peg through the round hole. A few days later, we looked at it again. I started trying to decipher the instructions, and realized that the ..read more

  On a Walmart run in late summer, I was almost overwhelmed by the sight of Halloween decorations, costumes, and shelves upon shelves of candy. Then, on my way to the pharmacy, I spied Christmas Decorations. According to Ecclesiastes, “To every thing there is a season…” To be blunt, summer is not the season for Christmas. So the song, “Turn, Turn, Turn” swirled through my thoughts. Pete Seeger composed the song in 1959 almost verbatim from the wisdom found in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. Seeger said these were the most important words he had ever latched on to, and that the melody leaps the barri ..read more

I was reading an article about resolving conflict and among all the scenarios and advice, the words that slipped off the page and into my brain were “tend to your own heart.” The words kept bouncing around like a mantra until I decided to explore the words mentally. We are faced daily with contentious opinions on every subject imaginable. Of course, this close to an election, it is easy to find an argument without even looking. The entire political climate is volatile with strong words erupting from all directions.  Insults and shouting is not going to change anyone’s mind whose opinion ..read more