I had a unique opportunity to unabashedly watch over two thousand women, mostly menopausal and post menopausal, over a ten hour period. I was working as an election teller for a service organization’s election. I was tasked with standing stony, like a chess piece, at an election machine in a room of 16 election machines, …
Our friend is sad. Her beloved was sick and after a valiant fight, died. Our friend is grieving. I love my friend and want to help but I feel helpless. I am sad too. At times like these the world is reduced to the very simple. I don’t need a complicated description of how she feels …
It’s a beautiful morning. The birds are singing. Baby Bunnies danced across the path of my walk. My dog pranced and smiled at my return. My husband made me coffee. What could be wrong? Something is. Remember the scene in The Fellowship of the Ring when they are in the mines and Gandolph reads a …
I’m not sure how to start this. It’s about grandchildren and being a grandparent. I want to say how much we love them, but if you have grandkids you know about that. If you don’t have grandkids you don’t have any idea and probably don’t care. I used to watch older folk pull out pictures …
While doing research for a piece on body image I ran across this brief video. Two entrances, one headed “Beautiful” and the other headed “Average”. Women had to choose one or the other to get into a building. I was rapt as I watched it the first time, the second time and the third. …
One might not think that Julia Child was Midlife Badass Woman, but she was. As I was growing up she stood bigger than life on the PBS screen. She taught cooking dishes I didn’t understand and thought I would never eat. She seemed eccentric and ethereal both at the same time. Her 6’2″ frame filled …
The first days after Christmas are the last days of the year. If there is a natural let down there is also a welcomed quiet. The wrapping paper is sorted, folded, or tossed. The house is made right. Dinners are simple leftovers. Thank goodness the cookies are almost gone. New Year’s resolutions knock in our …
I’m going to get right to it. This week is about experiencing joy and sharing it. Or, in case you just aren’t feeling it, sharing the joy and then experiencing it. Don’t Grimch out. Don’t waste a moment saying to yourself that you don’t have time, because this is the reason we celebrate. I’ll say …
This is the third week of Advent and that means a week of rejoicing. Long. Hard. Sigh. This Advent has been too? Too? Too everything hard. Rejoicing seemed to be off the table. This Christmas season our primary home decoration has been an IV gravity infusion stand with all the attendant medication, syringes and alcohol …
I’ve been having trouble writing the last couple of weeks. A friend shot themselves and it shook my world. It was sudden. We missed the signs. I want to say that it was because they were selfishly hiding the signs but they was probably trying to act their way out of a depression. …
