Last week my daughter Emmy, a Life Enrichment Coordinator for a local senior living community, presented at the Tennessee Healthcare Conference. Her topic was creating meaningful programming for elderly adults. I attended the session partially as a proud mother but also as an unpaid volunteer. My job was to stand at the door and give… Continue reading Three Notecards
Category: Uncategorized
The Right-sized Tent
Packing for our recent family beach vacation required strategic thinking, the likes of which I haven’t done since my children were young. The addition of a grandbaby on the trip meant rafts, floaties and her own personal tent for the sand. My mind was racing with SPFs and consumer ratings. One daughter appointed herself the… Continue reading The Right-sized Tent
Lazarus
Recently while my husband was out of town for three weeks, I puttered around our house, doing lots of writing and reading, and tackling little household projects I’d been putting off. Because my husband is our resident chef, I also discovered just how badly I cook. Actually, I don’t mind being alone; I remember as… Continue reading Lazarus
The Longest Day
Did you know that, in the last trimester, a baby hears her mother’s voice, and it becomes familiar? Once the infant is born, that voice will be reassuring—the baby often turning towards its mother’s voice in a room of people. This is one more example of how distinctive mothers are from anyone else in our… Continue reading The Longest Day
Iris Love
This past Saturday, April 20, we celebrated our youngest daughter’s birthday. The weather could not have been cooperative or the day more festive, as we marked the beginning of ten days of palindrome dates in April. We’ll again see ten consecutive palindrome dates over the next five years (May 2025, June 2026, July 2027, August… Continue reading Iris Love
The Morning After
For the first time in many years, there is a forecast of sunny skies and warm temperatures on Easter. That means we won’t need to don heavy coats over cheerful attire, casting the coats aside only long enough to snap photographs in which we pretend not to be cold. Although I’m thrilled about the weather… Continue reading The Morning After
Ashes on a Valentine
It strikes me as particularly poignant that Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day this year. There are no brighter, cheerier decorations than those related to Valentine’s Day. Walk through any store and prepare to be overwhelmed by the crimson candy boxes, balloons and ruby roses. Each Valentine’s Day I’m reminded of the Valentines I helped… Continue reading Ashes on a Valentine
Things I Miss
Recently, over a glass of wine, a friend and I discussed things we miss. Our lamentation, fueled undoubtedly by the discord in our current world, was for days gone by, for things that, big or small, made us happy. Please indulge my list (and the curmudgeon status it reveals): I miss office water coolers. Okay,… Continue reading Things I Miss
Bending Toward the Light
And so it begins: another year. There is an old superstition that, to have luck in the new year, you must take down all your Christmas decorations by New Year’s Day. Of course, the naysayers that propagated this superstition clearly haven’t heard of Epiphany. Regardless, I wiped our house clean of holiday décor yesterday. I’m… Continue reading Bending Toward the Light
Light Unseen
And here we are again—falling back into darkness. This is the week of the year I dread the most. I despise walking to my car after work in the dark, miss taking early evening walks with the dogs when there’s still sunlight. I long for the smell of freshly cut grass and those long meandering… Continue reading Light Unseen
IN THE MIDDLE 