If a situation calls for affirming words or tender acknowledgments, what do you say?
“It depends on the circumstance,” you might respond. Yes, it does. But when...
For people my age, having a mother to celebrate on Mother’s Day may be only a memory. Finding the perfect Hallmark card and appropriate flowers, only a memory. ...
I have a query for you. Don’t think too much about it, just say whatever pops into your thinking.
Here’s the question: “What are the first five words that come ...
The philosopher Ruth Chang of Rutgers University believes “hard choices” arise when “your options are not equally good, but none is better overall. They are goo...
Do you remember reading an article titled, “What Happens When Love and Science Double Date?” I don’t think there were definitive findings, but I was surprised t...
There’s a lot to keep track of in the world these days — it is almost too much to bear.
Last week I was thinking how enormously grateful I am that COVID-19 is ...
In 2020, I wrote a column that nakedly exposed my adoration for my youngest grandson, Jordan. I have written several columns over the years extolling him, but t...
Inspire. The word means “to breathe life into.” For me, inspiration comes in moments where a concept or a person exceeds expectation. In those moments, I am rai...
There is so much to worry about these days, but I have decided not to. Worry that is. At least for one hour a day.
A defined hour of every day in which I start...
Do you ever wonder how you would act in a perilous situation? Do you ever think about whether you’d have the courage to stand up to a bully, a bully with a gun....
I’m always in search of stories. I lean toward authentic, well told tales that bump up against my heart — and make me think about life a little differently.
I ...
I’d like to share an idea. Actually it’s not my idea, it’s my daughter’s. Truthfully, it’s the idea of a friend of my daughter’s. I am borrowing it. You are wel...
Decision-making as we age gets sticky.
Studies have found we older adults are less able to hold on to multiple thoughts, and as a result have increasing diffic...
I fancy myself a good conversationalist. I hold my own in most social settings and I occasionally offer gems of conversant wisdom that surprise even me.
As olde...
At the beginning of the pandemic, two long years ago, when we were all trying to set up remote learning and parents had to adopt the behaviors of in-the-home cl...
While scrolling through Amazon.com in search of spring — and, yes, I know it’s early — I happened upon the perfect gift to give myself. It was love at first sig...
I received a lot of reader reaction to last Sunday’s column (“The Healing Power of Decency”). It appears I’m not the only one pondering its absence in our curre...
In the late fall of 2020, I recall listening to an audio-video recording of a 2016 interview with Sen. Lindsay Graham, Republican of South Carolina, in which he...
I received a “gratitude journal” for Christmas. Two, in fact. Having them visible on a daily basis inspires me to contemplate what’s going well in my life, even...
Transitions take many forms. Old year to New Year. Winter now and soon spring. Birth followed by death.
For our family, 20 years ago, the holiday season began w...
