Featured
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New year, old baggage to unpack
“If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.” ~Cesare Pavese Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your holidays. A slightly different version of this column ran previously in The Oakland Press.… Traveling Light in the New Year By the time we reach our wisdom years, most of us have accumulated way too much stuff. We need to weed out or pare down — whether we’re inclined to overpack our suitcases when we travel or stuff our bedroom closets with outdated clothing. It also occurs to me that I’ve been dragging around a trunk-load of pet…
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Farewell, 2024: Looking back at a tough year
“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” —William E. Vaughan, journalist and author Whenever a year comes to an end, it’s traditional to reflect on the events of the previous months. And what a wild ride this year has been. For starters, Doug’s 93-year-old mother had a stroke and was hospitalized in February, which led to more caregiving changes and challenges for her and our family. My mother-in-law is the last surviving parent we have. As our elders decline, we’re reminded to make the most of our own senior years while we find the resources and energy…
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The ordinary instant
“Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.” ~Joan Didion It started out to be an ordinary, uneventful Saturday evening. In a few texts, my friend Deb and I had just agreed that we were looking forward to a quiet, cozy evening with our husbands. Nothing special to do. Then, around 6:15, I opened the front door to bring in two packages from the porch. And life changed. As she often does, our dog Coco followed me to the porch while I picked up the packages. Though Coco isn’t allowed to wander unleashed in the front yard, something caught her eye on the park-like boulevard across the street from our home.…
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Life without Facebook
“The biggest problem is that Facebook and Google are these giant feedback loops that give people what they want to hear. And when you use them in a world where your biases are constantly confirmed, you become susceptible to fake news, propaganda, and demagoguery.” ~ Franklin Foer This year I’m celebrating eight years of Facebook sobriety. Once I quit, my emotional wellbeing, social life, family relationships, and productivity all improved. I started reading more, writing more, and enjoying the simple pleasures I had overlooked while I was scrolling for social media updates. Though I wrote this Oakland Press column a couple of years ago, its message still applies today —…
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How to Know a Person
“Being open-hearted is a prerequisite for being a full, kind, and wise human being. But it is not enough. People need social skills.” ~David Brooks As author David Brooks sees it, so much of our current national angst results from the “fraying of our social fabric.” Put simply, we’ve forgotten how to talk with each other. We’ve forgotten how to listen to each other. At the same time, too many of us feel unseen and misunderstood. Worse yet, mental health statistics show that we’re feeling lonelier than ever. Social media may have given us more connections — and nearly unlimited access to others — but the quality of those relationships…
