It’s Monday morning. I should have been heading back to school after a relaxing week of spring break. That is not the case…not just for me, but for people all across the world. I did not have a relaxing spring break. And, I am not heading back to school. This is not a normal Monday morning in any way, shape, or form thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the world. I did go to school this morning, but not to…
A week ago today, I was in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a port day in the middle of a weeklong Caribbean cruise. It was sunny and in the mid seventies, unlike today in Dallas where it is rainy and barely forty. I will write a more general post about the cruise in another post, today I want to focus on St. Thomas. Unlike St. Kitts, where we had been the previous day, the “main drag” in St….
I’m feeling a little like Goldilocks today. I know that life is all about finding balance, but sometimes that balance, that sweet spot between what is too big, too small, too much, too little, is more delicate than I know how to deal with. I am writing this as I sit in the Miami airport waiting for my friend, Becca, to arrive from Illinois. Several months ago, she called me and said that she needed to get away and go…
I am not a new year’s resolution maker…not because I don’t believe in them, but because I usually fail at keeping resolutions. I am, however, a master goal-setter. Somehow in my feeble little brain, setting goals seems more positive, and more attainable, than making and keeping resolutions. I realize that that is probably not rational thinking, but it works for me so I’m going with it. I achieved many of my 2019 goals, but I’m not sure that happened in…
Have you ever wondered how loyalty, perseverance, and “beating a dead horse” differ? How do we know when we should try a little harder at something, or do things a little differently, or change our course of action entirely? I have had many teachable moments when it comes to this life lesson and yet still I struggle. This month, I have turned to the IT world for further training on how to deal with these things. Whenever something doesn’t work…
A few weeks ago my daughter sent me a video of her reading to her sweet baby boy and my four month old grandson, Joshua. The book was Sandra Boynton’s board book Moo, Baa, La La La, in which she tells of the sounds that animals make. As Erin read and made all of the requisite animal sounds for Joshua, he giggled and giggled…except with the meow of the cat. Apparently at this tender young age, he is not impressed…
I know…there is nothing routine about a bucket list trip that takes you to another continent almost 4000 miles from home. That said, this trip made me think a lot about my daily routines at home-the things I do and don’t do-as well as the pieces of those routines that I did and didn’t maintain while away. The oddest part of the trip, since Weber did not go with me, was having seven nights in a hotel room by myself….
Bucket List Trip #2 is now complete. As is the case when any goal is set and then achieved, the emotions surrounding it are many. It is much like what I experienced when I was playing recitals. For a long period of time, all of your thoughts and energy are focused on that one thing and then, in what seems like no time at all, it is over. In that “overness” is a swirl of thoughts, emotions, and images. As…
On my 56th birthday, I wrote this post, the first in what I intended to be a weekly post about making my way from 56 to 60. That did not go exactly as planned. I acknowledged my failure with those weekly posts a few days back and am now starting again where I am, with Sailing Toward Sixty #9- Here We Go Again! This post’s title is not what you think. This series of posts got its name from the realization that…
As a musician by profession, it will come as no surprise that I love going to live concerts. I also love live theater. What I don’t like is how expensive tickets to these things can be. “Good” seats for both can cost hundreds of dollars. It is not that I don’t think experiencing these things as a member of the audience is worth the money. I know first hand how much time, energy, sweat, and money is needed to produce…