Out of the mouths of babes. I follow a little 6-year-old girl and her Mom & Dad on Instagram who are big into snowboarding - not because I'm into snowboarding, but because they make it look like so much fun. They travel all over the world and snowboard down the scariest slopes with the most breathtaking views. I guess one could say I'm just mindlessly scrolling, but to be honest, after watching a few of their reels, I kinda feel like I may have strengthened my calf muscles and burned off a few calories. Wishful thinking, I know, but say what you will - I enjoy keeping up with them. The little 6-year-old girl's name is Cash, but they frequently call her "Cashy," and she has coined this phrase, "If you're scared - do it scared!" Mom & Dad sell T-shirts and hats and all sorts of ... View Post
Wear The Bling Now – You Can’t Take It With Ya!
It's been said that I'd talk to anyone. I'd say that's mostly true, and one of my questions just about everyone gets is, "So, what did you do for a living?" You see, it's mostly elderly people I care for, so it's just always interesting to me to hear about their life, and it's encouraging to them too, that someone would be interested enough to ask about it. So I ask. Years ago, I cared for a 102-year-old woman who told me that she had at one time been an olive stuffer. She actually stuffed little green olives with little red pimentos. When I re-tell that story to people nowadays, they respond with the same question you probably just asked out loud, or at least thought in your head - "Don't they have machines that do that now?" Geez, I hope so. I mean, I love olives, but have to ... View Post
Stopping Time
There are those days. We all have them. Those days that we look up at the clock and it's 2:30 in the afternoon, and it feels as if we just finished our breakfast. On those days I often laugh and wonder if when we get to meet God face-to-face and ask all of our crazy questions, if He might just laugh and remind us. Perhaps He will say something like, "Remember those days when time seemed like it flew by? Yeah... it did, because I made it fly by! And remember those days when time seemed to draggggg..... It did, because I made it drag too!" Well, yesterday was one of both of those days. Time was flying along, and then, time stood still. And I am certain that time stood still because God just wanted to remind me of some things. He does that, you know. "My sheep listen to ... View Post
The Older I Get, the Less I Know
One hundred. That's likely the number of times I've sat down to write a blog in the past year, placed my fingertips on the keyboard, and... nothing. What happened to the days when I couldn't get home fast enough because stories were brewing in my brain? Seriously. I have about 25 drafts I've started, and never gone back to do anything with. Other times I just get frustrated and end up mindlessly scrolling on social media, or picking up a book and reading what someone else has to say. It's actually not a whole lot different tonight, and I'm wondering - will I get to the end of this blog, and decide it should just be hand-written in my personal journal? Perhaps. Imagine how relieved I was this morning when I had breakfast with my good friend and shared that I feel like ... View Post
An Unlikely Winter Friendship
Michigan winters are long and, well... not very sunny. And when you're a young kiddo, they are much, much longer, because we all know how TIME flies as we age. I grew up on Hemingway Street in Redford Township, Michigan, in an old-fashioned neighborhood with the Poisson, Scheller, Atkinson, Fitzgerald, Griffin, Russell, and a whole lot of other families. We rode our bikes around the block, played in each others backyards, jumped off each other's porches, and made snowmen together. But I can't for the life of me remember how it was that my friend Christina and I became friends with two ladies in their 80's down the street. They were sisters and shared a home together. Maybe we offered to shovel their snow or rake their leaves and they invited us in - who knows?! I don't remember. But ... View Post
Uncle Al & The Petrified Frog
I just titled this story before I ever wrote this sentence. You have no idea just how unusual that is for me. And, it was easy too. You'll see why shortly. This is a true story ;) One day a long, long time ago... Thanksgiving 1985 to be precise... I was stationed at the Presidio of Monterey in Northern California. I was learning how to speak Italian at the Defense Language Institute, the first of my four times being stationed in California. I wanted to get down to my Dad's brother's home in Anaheim and spend Thanksgiving with my family. My classmate and friend Wendy who was from Boston also had family in LA, so we planned a long weekend trip from Northern California to Southern California, and decided to see the Coast and take Highway 1 to get there. I would never, ever ... View Post
A Hero Among Us, in Chesterfield Township
I come across all sorts of people every day. You probably do, too. Sometimes, I just have short two- or three-sentence conversations while standing in line at the post office, or other times longer exchanges while doing a myriad of things throughout the day. I pretty much talk to everyone. My friend Nancy recently insisted I have a conversation with a friend of hers, telling me what an incredible human being this gentleman was. She specifically wanted him to tell me a particular story that took place many decades ago. So, I called him one night. Wow! In a world where it seems lately that no one cares about anyone but themselves, chatting with this man and listening to him re-tell the very story my friend wanted him to share was such a breath of fresh air. And couldn't we all ... View Post
Entertaining Angels
Airport terminals with rows and rows of connected seats are filled with people wearing headphones, or earbuds, or chatting on their phones each time I'm at an airport for travel. Few people make eye contact. Excited children are playing on Mom & Dad's phones or playing video games on I-pads. Usually I'm the one with a book. I'm also often the one who talks to total strangers, a lesson I never learned as a child NOT to do - but I've sure met some interesting people in airports, and I remember them, even decades later! For example... There was Linda, the RN who volunteered to sit by me in the last row next to the lady who admittedly had COVID and coughed all the way to Denver. The gentleman who was assigned to that seat didn't fit in that added row of seats because he was ... View Post