If the great city I live in is going to the trouble of providing a decorated tree, and retail stores are filling their windows with special displays for passers-by, the least I can do is be a witness. So last week, I hit the train and made a quick tour of...
My choice for a Word of the Year in 2020 was TRANSITION (see last year's optimistic blog post). How prophetic was that? None of us knew in December 2019 what lay ahead. All those 20/20 metaphors for vision, the beginning of a new decade, this generation's form of...
My apartment is a mess. My kitchen renovation, delayed since July, is in its final stages, which means that there is currently a large plastic sheet dividing my living room from everything else. My brand new stove sits in the dining area. Pantry items and dishes...
While we're all staying close to home or totally self-quarantined, there's a sense of aloneness. Many of us, however, have an unkind Board of Directors in our heads. I am compelled to offer three suggestions to combat those voices and/or a sense of isolation. Using...
I made it through a 5-day Ayurvedic cleanse which ended on Tuesday. I'd thoroughly prepared my cupboards (still under renovation) and plastic-coated my countertops (plywood stand-ins for my eventual Caesarstone ones), then gave myself over to a period of reflection...
How often will you do and do, yet remain unaware of how much you've accomplished? I'm fortunate to have another human being listen to me account for my actions twice a week. I prepare for our calls by adding to my ongoing list of Actions before we speak. But it's...
We've often heard "it's the little things" --those nearly unnoticeable annoyances or conveniences, kindnesses or slights--that shift our perceptions. My action partner picked up  my variation on that today during our check-in call. "You said 'minor, but major' a...
There's a Jewish folk tale that's worth a read these days. The basic premise is that a man, unhappy at home with his wife, goes to his rabbi for advice. He's told by that wise man to bring his cow, goat and chickens inside their house to live with them. Of course,...
I moved into my daughter's apartment while they're staying in New England and my kitchen is under construction. She texted me her internet info, but I had to call her when I couldn't locate her network, feeling like a dinosaur in the process. When I sent her the...
I received a generous birthday gift card from my brother and sister-in-law to Michaels, the craft store. They're now open again, so I took a field trip this afternoon to explore and shop. I wanted to stock up on threads, beads, baubles (sequins, buttons, etc.) and...
I wasn't used to preparing three meals a day, cleaning my apartment, making household repairs and observing protocols for staying healthy the once a day I exit my home. Admittedly, I've had help along the way until 8 weeks ago. Now, it's all me all the time. Not...
I credit Wayne Dyer with the quote, "You get treated in life the way you teach others to treat you." He was my first guru starting in the early 80's. It was back then that I began to question my upbringing for the first time. I began to note how that upbringing...
There's a sign in my building's elevator reminding residents that today, May 5, is #protectallworkers day, a shout-out to the front line people, beyond medical workers, who are keeping us functioning, one day at a time. Each night at 7pm there is a cacophony of...
I enjoyed cleaning my Logitech keyboard last week and thought I'd tackle my slow-operating vacuum cleaner today. I took the dust receptacle apart and saw (online) that you can run water through the filter. I noticed that it didn't flow easily. On closer inspection,...
I've been tracking each day of this quarantine with a list of to-do's in my master notebook. It's my way of maintaining sanity, some sense of normalcy and, dare I say, accomplishment. Yet, today when I went to record the tasks at hand, I saw that I had blanked on...
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