Every year, around this time, we have a robin that returns to wage war against the window in our kitchen. I’m assuming it’s the same one, but they all look alike to me. You’d think ours would have a distinguishable flat beak from his constant pecking battles over the years. I thought we had an incredibly stupid bird on our hands, but after some research, I discovered that this behavior is a common phenomenon. It’s simply the robin attempting to establish and defend his territory during the nesting season.
Go For The Burn!
Returning to Pilates this week marked the passing of my last milestone. I am now officially back to “normal” – or as close as I ever was. I entered class tentatively, as my muscles had atrophied from two months of sedentary living. It’s amazing how quickly you lose muscle tone. It hardly seems fair after all the time and effort you exert to achieve it. And the older I get, the more time and effort it takes. Simply maintaining these days feels like a full-time endeavor.
Lipstick on a Pig
My huusband and I have spent the past few weeks cleaning out the Florida house his parents had been living in for the past 30 years. Gone is the infamous ‘Depend-able’ cocktail table, remnants of past appliances, every supermarket bag that ever came into the house, along with an enormous collection of empty boxes, jars and Folgers coffee containers. It’s amazing how much useless junk we can accumulate over the course of our lives. It was cathartic heaving the mountain of debris cluttering the garage into the dumpster, which was overflowing, yet somehow the garage remains full!
Miami Vice
Choosing to visit South Beach while attempting a Lenten fast is equivalent to traveling to Sodom and Gomorrah for a spiritual retreat! I doubt there are many Lenten observers in Miami, unless fasting from wearing clothes counts. I certainly wasn’t going to find any encouragement within a community of excesses in every imaginable form – which brings me to my first choice point and an important admonition Paul gives the Corinthians: “Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character.” Not that I’ve ever needed any help with pushing the envelope.
Taps
The funeral for my father-in-law took place last week complete with full military honors. Having never witnessed a military ceremony, I was overwhelmed by the gratitude, respect and honor awarded for Paul’s dedicated and impressive service to his country. Can anyone not be moved by the mournful melody of Taps?
Angels Among Us
I recently wrote about the angels that surrounded and supported me through this most recent health challenge. I’m happy to report that the Colonel was similarly blessed. He had his own little harem of caretakers managed beautifully by my sister-in-law, Sharon. She is the Colonel’s winter next-door neighbor in Florida. For the past few years she and her husband, Paul Jr., have lovingly watched over my in-laws all winter, making sure their needs were met. This even included a subterfuge a couple of years ago to catch a thieving caretaker in the act with a ‘granny cam.’
The Colonel
My father in law, Paul, passed away this week at the age of 98. Having spent his entire career in the military, he was affectionately known as “The Colonel.” He was one of a dying breed: a chauvinist who said whatever he thought without filter or apology. Some might be tempted to attribute that to his advanced age, but he’d been doing it all his life. His political incorrectness knew no bounds,
Adjusting Your Focus
Someone commented to me this week, “I’m sure you’re making it seem easier than it sounds.” Not really. I’m just choosing to focus on the positive aspects of this experience rather than the pain. Does that negate the fact that this surgery was probably the biggest physical challenge I’ve ever experienced (other than the Brazilian wax my girlfriend persuaded me to try)? No. But that’s the paradox of life, isn’t it? The parallel paths of joy and suffering.
Angels By My Side
Last Saturday night I enjoyed a farewell meal with one of my guardian angels, Noonie, who slept by my side in the hospital every night. She was a Godsend – literally. Her calming presence and caring ministrations got me through many a rough night – with a little help from our adorable night nurse, Joe, who we both developed a little crush on. The best part of having Noonie there was that we managed to have a lot of laughs, despite the circumstances, and kept the staff entertained with our antics.
Who's Driving This Bus?
I know I said I wasn’t going to be writing, but I couldn’t resist getting in one more story. Last Monday I was thrown a curveball in the form of a sore throat and threatening cold, which I thought might mandate a postponement. I had finally caught my husband’s ‘man cold,’ which females know all too well is a life threatening illness. I was upset and could only respond honestly, “Really God? Are you kidding me?” Actually, what I said was more off color than that, but this is a Christian blog so I will keep that between God and me.
You Wanna Piece of Me?
Anyone with children is familiar with the ubiquitous homework assignment to create an autobiographical illustration for the class. It‘s an annual elementary/middle school exercise whereby the student tells the story of their life thus far. My children surpassed my academic abilities in the fourth grade, but I was all in when it came to ‘creative’ homework assignments. The one my daughter and I came up with for her last autobiographical
Undoing Christmas
I find the first week of January anticlimactic and a bit melancholy. In our family the Christmas season doesn’t officially end until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th, which commemorates the arrival of the Wise Men. Even so, come January 1st, there’s no denying the festivities are over. Everyone is returning to their respective lives, and the onerous job of ‘undoing’ Christmas looms. As I took the Christmas trees down, I was faced with an unpleasant truth – my own epiphany of sorts. Let me explain.
Unwrapping Christmas
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
When Bing Crosby wrote It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas, I don’t think he had neck braces or fracture boots in mind. No, he was probably envisioning something more in line with a Norman Rockwell or Currier and Ives print. Those scenes are charming for sure, but what isn’t visible is the frequently messy process involved in the effort to create them. Yet, if you peak behind
The Prophecy Candle
While writing this week’s Advent post, the news from San Bernardino hit the airwaves. Oddly, my message became even more relevant in the aftermath of yet another senseless massacre and the subsequent provocative Daily News headline “God Isn’t Fixing This.” Nothing sells news better than an inflammatory headline! The fact that it’s the most retweeted of the year for the news organization proves my point.
Stuffing 101
With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I’m relishing the fact that I no longer have to prepare that laborious and exhausting meal. I’m not a huge fan of turkey, and I find Thanksgiving dinner one of the most challenging meals to serve, and even harder to clean up. Getting and keeping everything hot at the same time is no easy feat.
I Remember Mama
The Elephant in the Room
Over the years I’ve often been applauded for how I manage living with an incurable disease. While I appreciate the sentiment, I’m not unusual. People do it everyday. There is a slew of ‘incurable’ ailments other than cancer that people learn to live with: ALS, MS, Crohns, paralysis, even grief. The list is endless, and many of them are a lot worse than cancer. None of us has a choice in what cards we’re dealt in life. How we choose to play them, however,
The 'S' Word
If there’s such a thing as a cosmic comeback, I received one from Steve Jobs in response to last week’s blog. Struggling with an armful of items to go downstairs, I laid my iPhone on the top of a full shopping bag destined for the trash. Then, as it is often known to do, my mind scurried in a million directions while I walked directly to the garage and deposited said bag in the trashcan. Thirty minutes later while searching for the phone,
The Big Dipper
After reading Steve Jobs’ biography and watching a subsequent documentary, I can’t imagine there is anything in the recently released movie that might compel me to watch it. No one can argue that the man was a genius in many ways, and being a devout Apple convert, I appreciate the way he simplified computing for the masses. Still, he was also a fallible human being like the rest of us. Yet people venerate him.