Many of us are feeling like we’ve been plunged into a spiral of dark news. Daily we are deluged with stories of large-scale migrant...
Ferocious Love: An Interview with Joanne Arnold, Photographer
When Joanne Arnold turned 50 her life felt empty. After raising three children, she suddenly had time on her hands. She was without direction, without meaning and purpose. Ever since she was a child, the one place where she felt alive was in “first light,” or the time right before dawn. This remembering prompted her to get up early, [...]
My Xmas Tree, “Caste,” A Great Crime Series & More!
My Christmas Tree Although I’ll be alone this Christmas, I’m not eliminating holiday décor, although it’s been greatly reduced from former years. As a young wife and mother, I went crazy, stringing garlands all over the house, baking gingerbread cookies for the tree, and even sending out homemade gift baskets to relatives. Decades later, [...]
How Gratitude Can Chase Away the Blues
It is not happiness that makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us happy. —Brother David Seindl-Rast In an effort to tackle my Covid blues, which have intensified at the prospect of another solo holiday, I was drawn to the concept that a gratitude practice could make me happier. As I plunged into the gratitude literature, [...]
A Very COVID Christmas
GUEST POST By JANET WEIL “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” – popular song by Donald Yetter Gardner, 1944 All I want for this Hanukah/Christmas season is two injections of COVID vaccine. Well, not all – I want the vaccine for my son the paramedic, my 99-year-old father-in-law, my husband about to turn 70, [...]
Covid Thanksgiving, Sophie Loren, A Record Setting Group & More!
Covid Thanksgiving I surprised myself by adapting to my orphaned Thanksgiving better than I had anticipated. Even though I wasn’t cooking a big turkey dinner as I have on previous years, I decided to scale-back and cook for myself as if I were my own guest. I made a turkey breast, stuffing, cranberry sauce and asparagus, topped off with [...]
GIVING THANKS TO YOURSELF
GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN Thanksgiving 2020 will be unlike any we’ve known, somewhere between weird and desolate. The CDC urges us to stay at home and skip family gatherings, which means that many will feel isolated. Zoom is a useful prosthesis, but Aunt Mildred can’t pass the biscuits through cyberspace. It may be [...]
“The Crown,” A Great Read, Thanksgiving Recipes & Much More!
“The Crown” This week I binged on season 4 of Netflix’s “The Crown.” I thought it was the best season yet. Standout performances included Olivia Coleman as Elizabeth and Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher. It was almost eerie the way Emma Corrin captured Diana with the same shy tilt of the head, wearing clothes that were exact [...]
What? A Second Lockdown!
Just when we were getting Covid under control, overnight the infection rates skyrocketed. With every state setting infection records, we all know what that means: another lockdown coming our way. Now that I’ve been through one lockdown, what have I learned to make the second one bearable? Experience has taught me to accept my erratic Covid [...]
Casting Off Regrets
Nervously I opened my aging report card. I earned respectful grades for healthy living, close relationships and meaningful pursuits, but a low grade for managing my regrets. No surprise. I tend to resemble Lady Macbeth uttering “Out damned spot!” In my case, it’s regrets that I can’t rub out rather than blood. I’m haunted over screaming [...]
Election Insanity, “The Queen’s Gambit,” Fall in Maine & Much More!
Election Insanity Thanks to the Goddess that the Presidential election will soon be resolved, as the ballots from Pennsylvania and other battle ground states are expected to be counted very soon. Now we have to wait and see if Trump accepts the results. If not, I’m prepared to join any peaceful protests that ensue. A Biden win doesn’t [...]