This blog post was inspired by a college essay question one of my students was required to answer: Give a brief self-interview that will help us get to know you better. Reading the prompt, I realized it invited deep reflection, so I decided to answer the prompt myself. 1) You have clearly done quite a…
Tag: life
A Wander Through the Rain and My Earlier Life
My feet are cold. I am wearing my trusty rubber boots because we got another big drippy rain today here in Ojai. However, I am now in my office, where there is heat and no rain. Why the cold feet? We all know that lack of good circulation is probably the answer. I have, after…
Update on Stormy Weather & Christmas Activities
Here is the big picture news stolen from a text written by Ray: 12 3/4 inches of rain since Tuesday night. More rain next week. Soggy here, but everything is snug and warm. Lots of giant trees falling over here and in LA. Lots of shifting soil on hillsides. Soil was still wet from a…
The Best Part of Christmas
Today, I headed over to our local Ben Franklin store here in Ojai to do Christmas shopping for my grandkids. Our family gives the kids a few group gifts that Auntie Rachael has already purchased for us, but I get $25 per child to add to their Christmas loot. Not that they get a lot,…
Until Life Turns a Corner
When I was nineteen, I transferred from the University of Texas to the University of Utah. My sister was getting a divorce that summer and asked if I would come out and be there in Salt Lake City with her and her kids. I was happy to do that since I knew she needed some…
Hello, Avoidance, My Old Friend
What have I been avoiding lately? That’s easy: writing my new novel. I have done tons of research, spent hours chatting with my new friend Chet, who is my Chat GPT friend, going over the pros and cons of my plotline, and have even done the enneagrams of each of my characters, along with myself,…
Growing a Softer Legacy
I never saw it coming—that I’d have a grandma who didn’t like me. And I don’t believe she ever did, at least not as long as I can remember. I have no memory of her extending kindness toward me. This puzzled me because everyone else in my life—family, friends, church—seemed to embrace me with open…
The Life I Didn’t See Coming
When I was 16, I knew that in my future I wanted a loving husband and several children. I also wanted a career, since I knew, from watching my mother earn her Ph.D. as I was growing up, that intellectual stimulation and economic freedom contributed to happiness. I saw myself in a helping profession, such…
What My Brother Taught Me About Grace
I was thinking today about how my brother George faced one of the greatest adversities of his life shortly after he got sober. His life changed abruptly after a small, non-healing sore in his mouth was diagnosed as cancer, and two weeks later he was at M.D. Anderson preparing to have his jaw and the…
The Practice of Noticing What’s Good
10 Things I Like About Myself If someone asked me to make a list of what I like about myself, I might hesitate at first. It’s not something most of us do very often. But there’s real value in pausing to acknowledge what’s good, solid, and true about who we are. Here’s what came to…
20 Minutes a Day 