The Blog

An ending and a new beginning. Next Monday, our son and his family will be moving into their own home. They surprised us – happily – when they moved in with us last July. None of us expected things to turn out this way, but step by step, they started the next phase of their lives. Our son faced the …

The positive power of networking. I rediscovered it today at a Powerful Women of the Gulf Coast (PWGC) lunch meeting – just in time! I have been writing blogs and posting Facebook thoughts/entries for two years, but my readership hasn’t grown and I seldom receive feedback. “Discouraged” is how I’d describe myself, ready to give up on writing, publishing, and …

What makes a memorial service satisfying? My husband and I have gone to many over the years, but they often aren’t very meaningful. Sometimes I’ve walked out thinking, “That could have been anybody’s service. It had nothing personal at all.” In the week since we returned from Norfolk, Virginia, where we went to attend a friend’s service, I’ve been wondering …

Hopes and wishes. Are they the same? Definitely not! But what’s the difference? Wishes are ephemeral things, floating around in your brain, but they never “put their feet on the ground,” so to speak. Instead, they lie around on the sofa with you, watching television, eating snacks, daydreaming, simply wanting something to come true without any investment of effort. It’s …

Becoming a wise woman. How do you do that? Doesn’t it just happen as you get older? No! There is no magic. I know, and you do too, I’m sure, women who get older but never any smarter about life. They often repeat the same mistakes over and over, never seeming to learn anything from them. It’s like the woman …

I felt like I failed. I’ve been working with a group of women  “ordered” to the class as a result of court actions. Most of them have children in foster homes and very stressful lives. Yesterday, one woman in particular could not (or would not) participate productively in the session. She sucked the air out of the room. No matter …

“I was just waiting to die,” my friend told me yesterday. He suffered a heart attack a decade or so ago, sold his business, moved to a city with good medical facilities, but essentially gave up. To pass the time, however, he tried all kinds of new activities – painting, gardening, photography – until one day he decided to try …

I had to admit my mother to a nursing home during a crisis years ago, then was dismayed when they treated her as if she were incompetent. I kept saying, “The disease affects her speech, but she’s fine mentally. Please talk directly to her.” When I looked at her chart, the admitting diagnosis was ‘dementia’. That was my “Aha!” moment …

Friendships survive even death. My good friend Ann died yesterday; she just never woke up in the morning. She had suffered a stroke in December and simply couldn’t recover, so today I’m left contemplating her loss and how it impacts me. She was older than I am, which never mattered. Ann was vibrant and engaged in life, and generous in …

Deadlines and priorities. How are they related? Last Friday, for example, my husband called around ten thirty to ask if I could meet him for lunch at noon. I was tempted to say, “No, I can’t because I have two posts to make and a 300 word piece to write for the Women’s Wisdom site.” He knows what that means …