When I think about what has made my life meaningful, it’s come from those experiences where I woke up. Events that rocked my world...
family10
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
Thank You’s I Never Got to Deliver
What if you had a chance to pose lingering questions to important people in your life who are now deceased? Poet Victoria Chang did this very thing, writing letters to her deceased parents, which she compiled into the book, “Dear Memory.” Chang, in trying to come to terms with her sketchy knowledge of her parents’ upbringing [...]
Pat Taub
Want Inner Peace: Practice Soul Care
In today’s frantic world, inner peace can feel unattainable, but it’s not all that elusive if you practice soul care. Living soulfully involves developing practices that lead to a life of integrity and deep meaning. When your soul come alive, your world lights up, transporting you to another dimension. You feel one with the universe. [...]
Pat Taub
Listening to Elders
The passing down of elder wisdom is an honored tradition among cultures like the Natives Americans and the Japanese where elders are sought out for their sage advice. Unfortunately, this intergenerational exchange rarely happens in America’s youth-obsessed culture, which devalues elders and their lived experiences. But as more Americans [...]
Pat Taub
Facing My Fears of Death
About seven months ago my beloved younger brother phoned to inform me he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He assured me he was accepting of his diagnosis, adding that he and his wife had applied for companion-assisted suicide at the point when his memory loss makes it difficult for him to function. Once I got over the shock of my brother’s [...]
Pat Taub
A Change of Heart is Needed
GUEST POST by MARY DUNN As we watch countries move farther to the right and leaders embrace fascism we see that there is something they have in common: punitive immigration policies. Trump’s closing speech of the RNC convention shows that he is no different. Vilifying those seeking asylum is something that has a long history in this [...]
Pat Taub