Participating in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge Less than a year ago, the far east was my limit in travel. I was still looking at cruises that folks tack on to their Australia trips. Go up north a bit. See what I could see in my lifetime. Travel booklets arrived every day, …
Tag: retired nurse
Life at 82: S is for Story
Participating in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge Early on when I started this blog (2010), I often wrote about the importance of telling your story. I said if you don’t, your words will die with you. I still feel that way, only more so. Since I retired from teaching nursing in 2000, …
Life at 82: Q is for Quote
After posting a few quotes on Life this past week that are newly meaningful to me, I naturally thought of using Quote for the letter Q. That brought me to a favorite Biblical quote that also refers to our lives. Background: In my graduate research, I studied the meaning of leisure for older persons. I …
Life at 82: P is for Place
Frederick Buechner is well known for many of his quotes. Perhaps you’ve heard this one but didn’t know where it came from. It relates well to my posts of the last few days on LIFE. “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” I …
Life at 82: O is for Oliver
I've rarely been able to understand poetry--the mystery of the meaning of the words and their fragmentary arrangements. But I've learned in several classes since I retired, that I don't have to understand every word. That sometimes reading for the feel, sounds, and rhythm is enough. For someone like me who is left-brained, logical and …
Life at 82: N is for Nothing
Nothing. When I woke up yesterday, I decided to do nothing. After a packed and scheduled week, I rationalized that I owed it to myself to do nothing. I almost succeeded. To do nothing, I soon found out, I had to do something. I could not just lie in bed with my eyes shut. Keeping …
Life at 82: L is for Love
Spending three session-packed days at the Calvin Festival of Faith & Writing has left my body buzzing as though I've eaten an entire chocolate cake and washed it down with a pot of caffeinated coffee. From this sentence, how would you describe what this conference was like for me? Dull? Boring? Waste of time? Or …
Life at 82: K is for Kinship
Being back in Grand Rapids, MI, this week elicits several feelings of kinship--an appreciation of similar origins. Like visiting my sister-in-law, Kay, yesterday. We are the oldest and youngest of my sibling clan, and the other eight have passed away. So a special visit for sure. Then stopping at my parents' cemetery yesterday brought tears. …
Life at 82: J is for Joy
Here I am with two of my sisters, Rose and Esther, during happier times. They have both passed away. It was Rose, as an experienced widow, who told me when Marv died that I must find joy in my life every day. She said Joy would not come looking for me. I must look for …
Life at 82: I is for I
I is for I as in me. I may have begun to learn that I must curtail my traveling a bit at 82. Yesterday I endured an 11-hour day flying day with one nearly three-hour layover at O'Hare. The day included three gate changes, including a concourse change, at O'Hare, a $24 lunch of a …
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