(I’m challenging myself to write daily starting now, 8/7/2025) Disclaimers: First, I have been challenging myself to write daily. I fell off for a whole week. Back at it now. Secondarily, my writing for this challenge is largely stream of consciousness. This is my thinking, things I’m puzzling through, knowledge I am building for myself….
Category: Quality of Life
An Elegy to My Tiny Tyrant
I knew it would be hard saying farewell to you. I minimized so much, thinking it would be the big things, like your presence. Last night when I went to bed, the same night that I let you rest my sweet dog, I felt your absence. And I miss you so much. The little things…
What Doesn’t Kill You, Makes You Stronger
I’ve never heard a bigger piece of bullshit propaganda than this title. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. It might not kill you, you might emerge stronger, and it’s more than likely that what doesn’t kill you will leave you more and more broken, cracked, damaged. And it charges interest, further depleting you in…
The Sum of 25 Years
As I prepare to move from my home for the last 25 years and two months, I am deeply reflective about what I sacrificed and gained by staying in this little rural bubble for so long. While I’ve been here, I’ve lost numerous people who I loved deeply, I’ve missed grieving these losses with family…
I’m Exhausted
Maybe it’s because my last kid has left the house and is in college. Or maybe it’s because I’m almost to the point of rounding the final bend to 50. Maybe I’m experiencing a mid-life crisis. Or maybe it’s because I find myself at a crossroads. Regardless of the reason, I’m realizing how deeply exhausted…
2019: My New Hope
A colleague asked me the other day what my work-related hope was and it got me thinking. I want to think larger than work. I know things are beyond horrible for so so many people and there seems to be some new horror daily, if not hourly. But I think maybe there are few glimmers…
Me and my dogs
I have two dogs. Two dachshunds, wiener dogs, doxies. One has long red hair, he’s Rusty. We got him when he was just months old and my daughter was around 5. He’s been through a lot with us. For years all my daughter could talk about was getting another dog. I was going through a…
Grouchy in Paradise 