The Sun Comes Up in Mourning The question of the moment: How do you keep the world in your heart while living your life? I have had this conversation several times in the past few days. These are agreements among … Read More
It’s the decade when lots of things change. “The fifties are the revenge of the flat-chested woman,” my petite friend stated over coffee. I am not a flat-chested woman; not stacked, ever, but I had cleavage in my late teens … Read More
I have been blogging on Medium, a blogsite – sorta like Facebook – where I have my own writer’s page, along with 200,000 others. The advantage of Medium is that search engines like Google comb their pages and refer readers … Read More
What was the worst job you ever had? The clean-up crew had their radios tuned to the local station from 6 p.m. until we heard the call to report. We listened for the familiar jingle (“From the valley of the … Read More
We have many specific descriptive words in the English language. Poetry slams are not for the faint of heart. When I started writing again, I attended poetry slams. I introduced myself as representing the Medicare Division. I was older than … Read More
And Cartwheel for Love. The ice on the Mississippi cracks creating holes and floes. Around La Crosse, Wisconsin, the Mississippi is a braided river, with many islands and back channels and sloughs. The large trees along the river are bare … Read More
We need family rituals — along with crazy uncles and reactive cousins Maintaining family relationships does not happen automatically. It takes the work of “kinkeeping,” the small tasks and large events that reassert we are family. My 2-year-old grandchild has … Read More
We can model resilience in uncertainty. The whiplash just keeps coming. Covid. Climate Change. Local Disasters. Global Instability. Riots. War. Those of us with lived experience — we who are older — have both the opportunity and responsibility to model … Read More
Longer adult friendships with parents are new, generationally. I never had a Grandma and Grandpa that matched the storybook pictures. When I was a grandkid in the 1960s, the average lifespan was the late 60’s. Both grandfathers had died before … Read More
In memoriam for the doctor who walked with the poor. Paul Farmer died this week and deserves a public eulogy in many spaces. He was a hero in global healthcare and we need to hold up our heroes. This week … Read More