“Character is destiny.” I had heard those words before. Last night I read that they were attributed to Heraclitus, a Presocratic philosopher who was said to practice social distancing several thousand years before it was cool. He was a hermit. There is a lot of wisdom in that view. Character is not a word you […]
Turns out, I was wearing it upside down. My mask. My N-95. My first one. As I stood in line to get into the grocery store, I snapped a selfie to send to my friend as I thanked him again for the gratis covering. He politely pointed out my error. I didn’t receive his gentle […]
I go along thinking shelter-in-place hasn’t affected me much. For every adverse effect, I can find a positive. For every downside, I can see an upside. As one who is neither sick nor unemployed, it is, frankly, hard to muster a complaint. With so many in true duress, I am, by comparison, fortunate. No doubt. […]
An hour after I drafted my previous post I had a dream during which I realized I had learned my own lesson about assessments all over again. It was like a paradox inside of a paradox. Like dreams often are, the moment didn’t make sense, not literally, not in waking life, and yet in dream […]
I’m not an expert on intermittent fasting (IF) but that won’t stop me from dishing out some opinions on this tasty topic. I have read a fair amount and watched several videos — a Japanese scientist, Yoshinori Ohsumi, won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the topic so if […]
I am not a good sick person. I don’t deal well with not feeling well. Simply put, I am bad at illness. This week I have tried a trick that people with health issues of a more acute or chronic nature no doubt figure out: don’t identify too closely with your health. Call it the […]
I am not a doctor and I don’t play one on the Internet. I do not know what works for anyone else but here are my keys to dealing with the icks: – Drink lots of water. Duh. You have to flush out the bad stuff. – Put a splash of apple cider vinegar (with […]
Turns out, my blahs had a physiological component. My body, it is now clear, is fighting something. It’s funny how you don’t notice the signs. I recall asking a friend on Saturday morning, “Is it colder in here today than usual?” I had on two layers. He looked at me like “what are you talking […]
Expression is one of my current core values. For reasons I won’t go into now, expression has not always come easily for me. Also for reasons I won’t go into now, writing about expression is not coming easily for me at present, either. That is why they invented bullet points — to create the illusion […]
I am tired of the sound of my own voice. I have listened to me all day (out loud and inside this melon on my shoulders) and, frankly, I have not had much interesting to say. By the end here, well, I slipped into a little something crabby. My apologies to the ether! And to […]
A characteristic of grief is that it can keep you from feeling things you want to or need to feel. Not just the so-called good feelings, either — happiness, joy, pleasure. Though, to be sure. Sometimes grief, which I imagine, if one wants to visualize it as an entity all its own, as a sort […]
They have to around here somewhere. I just had them! Where did you last see them? They were right … over … there! … right where I always leave them. You could retrace your steps. [Head scratch] Did I? No: I couldn’t have left them at the office. The gym. In the garage. I have […]
The heat hums. Then fades. It is early morning. Our breaths, yours and your little buddy’s, inhale, exhale. Air in, air out. You are in your morning spot. On days that you suspect might be bigger than other days the tendency is toward control. You tighten your grip on the smallest silver of this life […]
The word of the weekend is Gratitude. I realize Thanksgiving is not quite yet upon us. Call this a primer. Anyway, this is not about one day. It’s about 365. We all know that grateful people are happier people, don’t we? We have all experienced this for ourselves, too, seen what it does for us […]
Sometimes a week goes off the rails. I have not written much this week — a sign of stress and also an absence that exacerbates stress. I have lifted little weight this week, too. Same. I usually choose to stand much of the day at work. Yesterday, I sat more than usual. At one point, […]
I don’t do many things well, especially domestically, but one thing I have come to count on about myself is the ability to get out of jam. A specific sort of jam, I mean. What I am saying is that I can unplug me a toilet. ‘Twas not always so. I don’t mind admitting that […]
Like a window shutting in front of your face. That is what it is like. A window you didn’t know was there. That you did not shut. Not wittingly anyway. You just could tell the view was being … skid, skid, skid … reframed. Thump. After this window closes you see as you did before […]
A writing teacher of mine used to say that if you take three days off you are starting over. It is the great paradox of life that we do not get to start again, not really, and yet in every moment lies an opportunity for renewal. I am happiest when I have a beginner’s mind. […]
Sometimes you have to ask yourself the questions that are staring you right in the face in the morning. Such as: Is it possible I went to sleep with my glasses on last night? What I know: – I had them on in bed to read before turning out the lights. For sure. – I […]
I love goals. I love talking about goals. I love setting goals. Goals are crucial to success — however you define that term. For you cannot hit a target if you are not aiming at one. Cue the Zig Ziglar. I can even do the accent, if you would like. Yet what do you do […]