V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #44: Numerology

April 15, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

Numerology – the study of numbers and their connection to life patterns – fascinated me for many years. I came across a book, Numerology and the Divine Triangle which explained the Pythagorean theory of numbers. Like a psychic detective, I set out to uncover the mysteries of life, hoping, as we all do, to gain […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #43: Rain

April 8, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Raindrops, not tears,blur my vision –the line of trees before mea glistening blur.The pounding in my templesis just the steady rhythmof watery drip, drip, drip,not the incessant roarof my blood pounding –discordant is this day. I wrote this piece while stranded in Mississippi, with eighteen hours of driving still ahead of us, and no idea […]

Farewell to Farewells

April 7, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

Total exhaustion has taken hold. Brain is fried, emotions taut, body shot. Monday as we prepared to pull out, my right leg collapsed and as I reached out to stop the fall, I grasped with my left arm, wrenching an already torn shoulder. It did not bode well for the trip home. With a dead […]

Hello April

April 4, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

April means farewell, for we winter Texans. Not fated to be a quick journey, as problems keep arising, grounding travel, and interfering with our plans. Nevertheless, April means Spring and everywhere we look the birds are twittering with extra fervency – is that romance in the air? And even though we’ve encountered setbacks – breakdowns […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #42: farewell

April 1, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

As you read this, Ric and I will be saying farewell to Texas and our cozy home on the canal. We leave behind new friends, the countless birds who have so entertained us, and the beautiful Gulf Coast. I am both excited to be home, and sad to end our time here. But isn’t that […]

To All Aspiring Dads

March 24, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

” I’m worried about my generation, Mom. There are so few male role models to set an example, how are we supposed to know how to live our lives?” My son was fifteen when he shared this concern with me. Having watched his own father turn his back during our divorce, and witnessing the same […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #40: Things My Father Said*

March 18, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

(* or any male of influence growing up.) I can’t count the number of times my father’s words hover over me, even though he’s been gone since 2005. He was the king of platitudes – constantly quoting (and making us recite) the works of Dale Carnegie, or Norman Vincent Peale. “Mind over matter,” he’d say […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #39: Unanswerable

March 11, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

“I always start with questions that I can’t answer. Otherwise you get bored halfway through if you already know the answers. If you’re asking what seem to be unanswerable questions, then you have to keep showing up.” – Barbara KingsolverFrom A Talk in the Woods, by Kevin LarimerFeatured in Poets & Writers, November/ December 2018 […]

What Is In a Name?

March 10, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

A touch of history, a personal insight, a vision – all of these form the basis for how we have chosen to name our blogs. Reading the back stories has made this one of my favourite challenges. Each of us has put thought and care into finding names, an act that speaks of our dedication […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #38: What’s In a Name?

March 4, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

As I type up each week’s summary, creating links to various blogs, I am struck by how different blog names are, and compelled to ask: what’s in a name? Specifically, your blog name. Mine, One Woman’s Quest, comes from a lifetime of searching for knowledge, understanding, and deeper connection. Left mostly to my own devices, […]

Resilience

Boxes are filling up around us. We’re making a dent in our to-do lists. Doubt seeps in. Are we doing the right thing? Then I remember all the reasons behind making this choice and affirm: We are dismantling one life to build another, purposeful existence.

Monday Mood: squirrely

The movers need to be arranged, and the closets sorted and packed, and when was the last time we bought groceries…. Head and attention are going in too many directions at once, and I’m exhausted before I get started. Might be a little cranky too. The stress of moving is real.