It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more...
It All Comes Down to Kindness
It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‘try to be a little kinder.’ –Aldous Huxley In 2025, [...]
Pat Taub
Trailblazing Women We Lost in 2024
I’ve chosen trailblazers in literature, music, painting, political activism and medicine. Many communities lost their own notable women last year, whom you might want to include in your personal remembrances. Alice Munro (1931-2024) An acclaimed Canadian short story writer who won almost every literary award including the Booker [...]
Pat Taub
“A Life in Light,” Mary Pipher’s Memoir
As we enter a new year punctuated with images of wars, climate emergencies and the alarming prospect of a Trump presidency poised to threaten our civil liberties, Mary Pipher’s memoir “A Life in Light,” is a beacon of hope. Pipher offers personal examples, honed through a lifetime of beating back darkness, to discover light and resilience. [...]
Pat Taub
The Good Samaritan
This Christmas season prominent religious leaders like Pope Francis and Rev. Munther Isaac, Palestinian pastor in Bethlehem, call on us to put into practice the parable of the Good Samaritan, as it applies to Gaza. In a show of compassion for Gaza, the Pope’s nativity scene shows Baby Jesus with a Palestinian keffiyeh. Rev. Isaac’s church, [...]
Pat Taub
Home Alone
If you live alone, if your family is scattered far and wide, if you recently lost a partner or spouse, if you can’t afford the plane fare to visit family or to enjoy a holiday escape, you may be feeling miserable and lonely, making you a prime candidate for the holiday blues. No one wants to feel left out, but don’t fall prey to [...]
Pat Taub
Admit! Adapt! Adjust! Accept!
GUEST POST by MARY LOU SMITH I will be turning eighty-five in January. I work hard trying to admit, adjust, adapt, and accept what I can do. Easier said than done at times! I am an independent, active, creative and compassionate woman who left a forty-three-year abusive marriage in 2005 at the age of sixty-five. I have never looked back. [...]
Pat Taub
What Will Our Priorities Be?
GUEST POST by TOM SANTULLI I woke up Thanksgiving morning thinking of Picasso’s astounding and revolutionary masterpiece, “Guernica.” It depicts horrors in the Spanish Civil War. What would you see if he painted, “Thanksgiving 2024?” In the US: 700,000 unhoused waiting in soup kitchen lines. 37 million in poverty, many [...]
Pat Taub
People I’m Thankful For
This Thanksgiving I’m giving thanks to people who have acted with courage and compassion. Some in a big way and others in small everyday actions that warmed my heart. Among those to whom I offer a big thanks is Ursula Slavick, a Portland, Maine resident and member of a women’s peace group to which I belong. Ursula died at age 87 on [...]
Pat Taub
“Can’t we all just get along?”
This was Rodney King’s plea in 1992, when he was physically assaulted by the LA cops during that year’s race riots. Thirty-two years later American society still struggles to “get along.” Now it appears that Trump’s re-election has intensified our differences. I’ve been surprised at the rancor among gentle people, like the women [...]
Pat Taub
Post-Election Despair
It’s been just one week since Trump won the Presidential election, catapulting many into despair, terrified of his campaign pledges to deport millions and roll back human rights, like making abortions illegal nationwide. Upon hearing the election results, a few friends reported they were too depressed to find the energy to leave their homes. [...]
Pat Taub
The Olive Tree
GUEST POST by TOM SANTULLI The olive tree outside my door and I met in a nursery eleven years ago. She was seven inches tall, in a one-gallon pot. Since then, she’s outgrown pots, and lived in a garden plot for a few years. Now, four feet tall – a proud juvenile in her twenty-five-gallon pot, appreciated in that casual way into [...]
Pat Taub