Archive for January, 2016
Life Lesson #2: Get Dressed
Last month I wrote a blog titled “Life Lesson #1: Make Up Your Bed,” based on Adm. William H. McRaven’s speech, “Life Lessons from Navy SEAL Training.” I said that new widows are challenged just to get out of bed each morning, let alone make up the bed. This week…
Gratitude > Generosity > Joy
Key 12 to reclaiming joy: Be generous in sharing with others. Since October I have worked my way through the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, examining 12 keys to moving from grief to joy. These keys are not simply principles. Paul provides an order—a road map—for moving…
Rehearsing for a Dowager Role
One week after arthroscopic knee surgery, I have happily graduated from a walker to a cane. Not just any cane—an elegant, old, silver-headed cane that Lev occasionally carried the last years of his life. After his death, I ditched the functional, collapsible, ugly, aluminum cane he preferred but saved his…
Home Alone and (Almost) Ambulatory
Home alone. I managed to dodge my greatest fear for almost seven years—being sick at home by myself. Few widows want their children to physically care for them, but the alternatives seem worse to me—a stranger in my house who might rifle through my papers or steal small items, a…
Celebrating the 12th Day of Christmas
Tomorrow is Epiphany…Twelfth Night…the Twelfth Day of Christmas on the liturgical calendar, when the Church celebrates the coming of the Kings to visit the baby Jesus. While scholars tell us that it is more likely that Jesus was a toddler living in a house with Mary and Joseph when the…
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
My list of New Year’s Resolutions isn’t written on paper yet—in fact, I seldom make Resolutions—but they are clear in my mind. This year I am driven by the knowledge that I will have knee surgery in 11 days. What will I do during those weeks of recovery? I have…