It’s been just one week since Trump won the Presidential election, catapulting many into despair, terrified of his campaign pledges...
Feminism10
Lisa Montgomery, Home Altar, “Suffragette” & More!
Lisa Montgomery A story that got lost in last week’s horrific storming of the capital is that of Lisa Montgomery, the first woman prisoner executed since 1952. Montgomery was imprisoned for a horrific murder that has been attributed to the extreme sexual and physical abuse she endured growing up. Serendipitously, I had just finished the [...]
Pat Taub
My Soul-Full Family Holiday
GUEST POST by CAROLE LESKIN This is how I imagined it. Once Upon a Time, long, long ago, there was nothing but Darkness. A color so black it has never been seen again. And there was silence. It had been that way forever. Then suddenly, unexpectedly, millions of tiny lights, brighter than the brightest diamonds appeared. They danced in the [...]
Pat Taub
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 [...]
Pat Taub
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 [...]
Pat Taub
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 [...]
Pat Taub
The Straight Scoop on Witches
With Halloween right around the corner, it’s an appropriate time to reflect on the origin of witches, and to understand how the village wise woman was turned into a representation of evil, becoming a “witch.” We have to travel back to the 1500’s in Western Europe, when women healers and midwives played a central role in village after [...]
Pat Taub
Aging Like a Wise Woman
This week I’ll be a guest speaker for a Zoom class of older women, addressing what makes for a meaningful aging. For my presentation, I came up with these guidelines for growing into a wise older woman, which I’m sharing here: Honor Your Failures Reframe your “failures” as risks you took where you stuck your neck out. Examine [...]
Pat Taub
First We Weep & Then We Hit the Streets
I’ve been crying off and on since Friday night when these words lit up my laptop screen: RUTH BADER GINSBURG DIES! I screamed at my computer, “No! No! No!” It felt like the world was coming to an end, or at least US democracy. In short order my iPhone was ablaze with text messages from grief-stricken friends and family. The next [...]
Pat Taub
Walking with New Eyes
I was driving myself crazy over the prospect of Trump winning re-election, turning our country into a fully-fledged Fascist nation where hate rules. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t shake my doomsday thinking. I was desperate for a way out, a path to quell my anxiety. An answer presented itself in the form of Alexandra Horowitz’s [...]
Pat Taub
Are You Addicted to Apologizing?
You might be thinking, “What are you talking about? Apologies are my way of showing respect lest I appear insensitive or rude.” I’m not suggesting that there isn’t a place for apology in our lives, but most women apologize ad nauseum, which puts them at a disadvantage. When we constantly say, “I’m sorry” for a perceived upset [...]
Pat Taub