Dear C– I went to get a shopping bag from the stack tucked away on my closet shelf. In between the Iceland Nordic gift shop bag and the reusable bag from the Antarctica center in NZ, there was a Bloomingdale’s bag—basic and brown—I pulled it out, it was just what I was looking for. I opened it. At the bottom, a piece of white paper. I think, a receipt? I wonder what was it for? What did I tote proudly…
I love the Lenten season. A season of suffering, followed by joy and rediscovery fills my heart with hope–a sometimes absent friend other times of the year. Lent reminds me that life can suck sometimes and despite what our friends on Facebook want us to believe, it’s not full of rainbows and unicorns 24/7. Lent reminds me that Jesus suffered–and yes, I do too, even if on the surface I appear fine trotting through foreign lands alone. This year, instead of wine,…
A quick read of my Facebook and Twitter feed, a common theme permeates: 2016 sucked! From the untimely deaths of Prince, George Michael and Carrie Fisher, to the defeat of Hillary Clinton, many believed 2016 more catastrophic than a Shakespeare tragedy. But for me, 2016 was more a tale of adventure and self-discovery where I began to see my future not as what my younger self believed it should be, but for what my older self could finally see it…
It’s just a bowl, I tell myself as I pull it down from the comfort of its home on the second shelf of the storage cabinet where it’s been out of sight for the past year. It’s heavy, a sign it’s a good piece, not that crap you buy at Home Goods and ditch a year later. I should probably keep it, I think, but no, maybe I should sell it—at least get some money for it. I vacillate. My…
“I refuse to be defeated by an overweight tyrant.“–Lady Edith Crawley At last, the final season of Downton Abbey is getting it right. Since its debut season, Lady Edith has been my favorite sister–a classic middle child overshadowed by her spoiled, self-absorbed, overindulged, older sister, Mary, and free-spirited younger sister, Cybil. But in the final season, the writers are finally showing that Edith has the potential to out shine her sisters. For five seasons, Edith’s been cast as a cautionary tale…