“It may be easy to accept this year ending and a new one beginning. It may be easy to accept making resolutions to improve yourself in 2024. It may be easy to accept going back to work after having some time off for the holiday season. All this is rather a matter of fact, perhaps tradition. What may not be easy to accept is the growing uncertainty of local and global circumstances that are impacting – figuratively and literally – your life....

“Chances are you reading this are already aware there is something more to life than getting up, eating, working, eating some more, sticking on Netflix, going to bed, and repeating this routine again, and again, and again. No doubt the latter is interspersed with some fun moments, complaints, regrets, and doubts topped with heavy dollops of distraction. You are beyond this hamster wheel – good on you! Now it’s a question of going beyond this...

“It is disconcerting to see that after a whirlwind of preparation, hecticness and inordinate busyness to ensure all is in readiness for Christmas – the 25th, compulsion, distraction and programming compel further frenzy on the 26th. Oh, that a day of pause can be taken if only to breathe and rest. No thinking is required although it is introspection and reflection that will most quench and still your heart’s unrest. Take up the unheard of, the...

“Swept away either on a sunny beach or at a lovely dinner, by a fantasy snowfall or a dear friend’s memory, a sweet, soft touch or dreamy dessert; the kindness of a stranger or helping someone in need, a wonderful aroma or the fragrance of Mom; swept away by a massive hug by big son or littlest granddaughter, made teary-eyed by a poignant image or miraculous sound of a song in a faraway land; swept away by love’s embrace or a child’s rosy face...

“A long trip from a favorite spot – along the highway I spot a guy changing a tire. “Poor guy,” I think to myself. “Cold weather makes it even more difficult. Sending him some love and light to finish his task with ease.”  I then wonder how long it’s been since I’ve had a flat tire: decades maybe. And I’ve never been stranded, alone on a highway. The drive home is smooth, and I get in the front door before darkness sets in. Fast forward to...

“You’ve tried to draw attention to your needs. Subtly at first. An occasional sigh. Perhaps a few tears. Even a rare outburst, which really isn’t you, failed to ignite a concerned response. Your typically sunny disposition was increasingly difficult to maintain in light of the incidents and accidents occurring. At some point the attempts to answer to these episodes of omission stopped, and you witnessed deliberate acts of carelessness and...