Finding my Way Inside and Out

When Barry’s misdiagnosed broken hip and sudden, unexpected hip replacement surgery a month later plunged him into pain and complications, I fell into fear. Anxious thoughts imprisoned me: What if he doesn’t get better? How could I possibly live without him? Am I making the best choices to help him heal? Thoughts of our joyful…

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Love in the Lost and Found

In January, 2016, my 94-year-old mom, Ruby, fell in her bathroom in Tucson, Arizona. A blood clot traveled from her hip, still bruised and sore from two falls the previous week, to her brain, causing a massive stroke.  Minutes after the ambulance crew wheeled Mom into the hospital, my brother, John, who’d moved to Tucson…

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A Quick Cure for Anxiety and Depression – #WATWB

Lately, I’ve been reading a lot about people who, quite understandably, feel depression brought on by the effects of Covid 19. Forced into social distancing, some that live alone face endless loneliness. Many face a harrowing financial and family crisis, what with physical distancing, loss of jobs and/or income, suddenly having to juggle more tasks—homeschooling…

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Good News About Love and Compassion #WATWB

In my search for good news about love, I came across an article on the website of Jim Hopper, PhD. that, as a caregiver, gives me great hope and pause for reflection. Titled Mindfulness and Meditation: Kindness, Compassion & Love, the article gives us a roadmap for cultivating these qualities. In discovering and practicing new…

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Holidays Are Happy, Right? Kindness as Comfort for Grief

The chubby man’s mirrored goggles reflected sunlight as he skillfully performed an underwater flip in the Nuuanu YMCA pool, barely stirring the surface of the water at the east end of his swimming lane. His yellow fins and flaccid arms propelled him swiftly toward me. I hoped he’d be friendly. Swimming pool rules dictated you…

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