Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
It’s Christmas Eve, if you are a celebrating Christian, or an adoptee of the holiday. For some, it is a time of last minute rushing about, for others, celebration, and, if you are like me, it is a time of quiet relaxation. Whatever your practice or affiliation, I wish you peace and joy. No challenge […]
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This time of the year, I find myself perusing recipes – looking for the perfect gluten-free dessert, or a new appetizer to take to a potluck, or maybe an easy way to use up leftovers. I am also concocting a recipe for the perfect get together – imagining the ingredients and timing for holiday […]
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The excitement of travel, friends visiting, and the overabundance of photo opportunities has left me exhausted. Yesterday was the first day in four that I ventured outside briefly. So much for intentionally practicing peace. I feel a bit like a dog chasing its own tail – so much I want to do and see, yet […]
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Despite flash flood warnings the rain has subsided without too much fuss. We are waiting on the arrival of friends from back home, and having tidied up, I decide to take advantage of the break in weather and put my camera to use. I step outside just in time to see a cormorant swim by. […]
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… every day that I’m able to get out of bed,and even better, get out of the house… …a river nearby, and a camera with whichto capture the glorious gifts of nature… …the love that flows between generations,the wicked freedom of being a grandparent… … the blessing of travel, and the discoverythat enables ongoing learning…. […]
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In the late 1980’s, I began to study the psychology of dream interpretation as offered by our local university. One of the exercises our professor recommended when doing dream work, was to give each recorded dream a title, and then periodically list those titles, in order, to elicit new understanding. The assumption behind the exercise […]
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The cold is unrelenting, and sleep does not favour us this first night out, so at 4:00 a.m. we decide to take advantage of Walmart’s 24-hour service and get some groceries. The sight of food stirs hunger and from there we find an all night Denny’s and order an early breakfast. That Ric is overtired is […]
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4:15 a.m I am wide awake, my head full of what needs to be done before we set out on our next adventure. Ric is sleeping soundly, so I quietly close the bedroom door behind me and set about my business. Outside the wind howls and as if in response, my right hip aches. Yesterday […]
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“Take her to Arizona,” doctors advised first my parents and then my husband, as if going to the desert was some magic remedy for all that ailed me. Might as well have told me to go to the moon, the possibility of such a journey always just beyond our reach. Until my husband found a way, deciding […]
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At fifty-nine, I was certain that I knew myself – accomplished, defined and established – but illness changed the framework from which my remaining time would unfold. I became a non-entity in my former career, and a ghost to friends. My children mourned the loss of their vibrant mother and settled into lowered expectations. […]
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One Woman's Quest II 