Adventures in joyful living
Sounds a little like the title of an Anne Tyler novel, doesn’t it? Sometime in our pup’s second year, Hubby noticed that Enzo goes on high alert if he notices one or both of us at the vanity mirror, attending to the things that people do before they leave the house—Hubby shaving, me fussing with […]
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A few posts ago, I shared that I’d done a DNA test that yielded at least one expected result: I’m Southern Italian by an order of magnitude. But it also yielded close to 6,000 DNA matches from all over the place, from Rome to Canberra. The one result I’d really been after, a “proven” connection […]
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Enzo wanted to say hello. I’ve stayed reasonably current with technology since I demi-retired. I’m good with all the basic software, for business and pleasure, that daily life in 2023 requires. I’ve made peace with every new version of Word, Excel, and my built-in photos software. That’s about all I need. But by default, I’m […]
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In a little more than a month, I’ll have one of those “landmark” birthdays. Don’t misinterpret: I’m not full of anxiety or fear or regret. I’m just a bit more conscious of it than I would have been ten or even five years ago. And a bit more reflective about what these decades, piling up […]
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There have been four sunrises, thus far, in 2023, each a bit different than the last. I began the process of disassembling Christmas yesterday. The tree is still intact, but the various other Christmas-y “notes” about the house are gradually being put away. I’ve learned not to tackle everything in a single day lest my […]
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I was 12 when JFK won the US presidency and 15 when he was gunned down in Dallas in the first of a string of horrible political assassinations that occurred over the course of my adolescence and early adulthood. They were publicly shared, life-changing tragedies that set my generation on a hyper-idealistic quest to right […]
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I always knew this would happen. That’s why I put it off for so long. Nonetheless, I finally spit into that tiny tube and sent my DNA off into the ether. My father talked more about his family’s history than my mother did hers. I’ve always wondered if this had something to do with her […]
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We all needed a break… except, perhaps, Enzo, who cocked his head skeptically every time I said, “We’re going to the beach. Isn’t that grand?” Dogs, like old folks (“Not I” said the Little Red Hen), appreciate the reliability of routine. It was our first effort at making Enzo into a traveler. All our prior […]
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Sometimes you just need to get out of Dodge. For those of you who live on other shores, or haven’t grown up hearing it, that oh-so-American expression means Dodge City is a mess, and it’s time to move on. My research into its origins revealed that it did NOT originate in a black-and-white western—Gunsmoke is […]
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Nearly three seasons have turned since I last sat here, in the mid-morning light, completing a post. I can easily blame this lapse on real life getting in the way… because it certainly did. But daily life has been more or less normal for months now, and still I’ve barely tried to write. Or even […]
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Now that the colorful glow of Christmas has been packed away, these cold, dark January days can be hard to take—unless, of course, you have your own Enzo to coax you out of bed in time to catch the early morning sky. Not the brightest sunrise, this one—all subtle blues, grays, and lavender, with just […]
Read More…As I write this, we have turned the calendar page to another new year. The last two have been so odd, so asynchronous, so tragic. But perhaps we can agree that this time of trials and isolation has helped us to discover more joy in simple things, and more attendant gratitude. We haven’t allowed either […]
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Hashtag Retired 