Shall We Dance? My daughter, married with a teenager and in midlife, stopped by a shop to have an auto mechanic change the filter in her Prius. She waited while he checked out her car. He finally emerged to announce, “We have a real problem. We found two mice nests next to the…

Alzheimer’s Can Diminish. Trauma Can Repress. But, Understanding Our Memories Can Lead to Enlightenment, Healing, and Empowerment Most Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays I visit my wife at a “memory care and assisted living” facility where she resides. It was about eleven years ago that we were sitting in our living…

An Enormous Undertaking. What Is Required? As is customary, here is my “one word to live by” for 2022. “Intentionality” is not an action to be taken, it is a philosophy of life; it is a way of bringing purpose to the many dimensions of our existence on this planet. It refers to “the belief that…

Elizabeth Buzzelli, an author who lives in Northern Michigan, was driving in a thick fog one morning when she came upon a motionless loon in the middle of the opposite lane. She drove past the loon — that alluring bird that everyone who vacations across the northern U.S. loves to…

Next, My Word for 2022 As the year 2021 was being inaugurated I borrowed an idea — to choose a word that would be a theme around which my life would be centered the next 12 months. The word was “gratitude”, the act of being thankful and returning kindness. Anticipating that we would be coming…

And Finding Your Rhythm in Life I have a friend, a mentor of sorts, in his nineties, who goes to bed quite early, but wakes up at 2 a.m. or thereabouts and reads for hours before breakfast. He has found a rhythm to his life. He has an insatiable appetite for knowledge. He reads not only…

There is an old “saying” that goes: “When you point your finger at someone, remember there are three fingers pointing back at you.” Examine the poster at the top and you can see the visual meaning. Don’t miss the words, however. It’s very human to blame a mistake or a…

My First Meeting with the Grand Dame of Modern American Journalism In December, 1993, one of those winter snows that occasionally visits Washington, D.C., was falling. Wet flakes melting on the windshield of my car were swept to the sides as I made my way to the Georgetown home of Katharine Graham for a holiday party. This was the place where…

Is it true that no one escapes pain, fear, and suffering? We cannot really know the life of another person. But, as we contemplate this thought, mentally walking through our list of family, friends, and acquaintances, it appears to be largely true. If so, what is our response when we…