2:00 a.m. The hall light blasted into our room and our 7-year-old grandson stood in the doorway crying, “I can’t sleep.” I buried my face in the pillow, thinking this was a nightmare, but the loud wailing continued. Finally, I stumbled out into the hallway. “You’ll wake your brother. Please,…
Most of us aren’t being touched enough. In her book Touch (2001), Tiffany Field argued that many societies, ours among them, are dangerously touch-deprived, leading to an epidemic of what she referred to as “touch hunger.” When’s the last time someone touched you, other than maybe a handshake? Touch is…
I figured out that as of today, August 30, 2017, I have lived 24,235 days on the planet this time around. According to the Social Security Life Expectancy Calculator, I’m predicted to live another 7,000 days or so. Of course, it may be a lot fewer than that. That’s sounding…
We like to eat. Food makes us feel good. We probably obsess about eating as often as or more than we think about sex. I read the other day that when we were young, we all had around 9,000 taste buds. And each taste bud contained a number of specialized…
My husband Ed and I have deep friendships with only a handful of people. They’re like priceless gems. They’re like finding home. We’re committed to being there for each other no matter what. We know that these close relationships provide love, meaning and support. And because of the strong connections…
We need to begin to discuss something we’ve tended to avoid talking about. Let me tell you why. For a long time, I’ve had this thing called “urge incontinence,” a sudden intense urge to pee for no apparent reason. It’s not like “stress incontinence,” where one can point to a…
I recently read At the Window, an essay by Mary Jo Balistreri. She wrote, “The elderly in our culture are simply not seen. Or if they are, they are often seen as less,” and she went on to provide illustrations of how she, at age 71, has personally experienced…
I roll over and stare at the alarm clock on our bedside table. 4:30. Groaning into my pillow, I try unsuccessfully to drown the heavy snoring of my sick-with-a-cold husband who lies next to me. Finally I give up on sleep and slide off my side of the bed. I…
My good Mennonite parents (especially my father) were anti-materialists and anti-consumerists to an extreme. They firmly believed that God only asked for them to be obedient and humble in doing His will. He would take care of the rest. And they lived their lives accordingly. “We don’t need curtains. Just…
When I started and then stopped writing this blog over four years ago, my husband and I were estranged from three of our four middle-aged children. Each of them found something about us unacceptable, and the “somethings” were different in each case. “But you were always a good parent,” my…