Your Authentic Life: Memories of Christmas in Paraguay
You’d think, since my family lived in Paraguay, South America, that our Christmas traditions would be Hispanic, including pan dulce (a vanilla bread sort of resembling fruit cake), Papá Noel and cotton on our Christmas tree to simulate snow during the hot...
Your Authentic Life: Confessions of a Holiday Volunteer Junkie
I admit it. I love to volunteer at Thanksgiving and Christmas, doing whatever — cooking, serving meals, cleaning up. Although Ed and I give money to charities year-round, it’s mostly during the holidays when I feel called to show up...
You Authentic Life: The Truth About Holiday Depression
If you Google “Holiday” and “Depression,” you’d think the vast majority of us fall into a deep funk during this time of merry celebration: Holiday Anxiety and Depression: Click for Survival Tips Holiday Depression: How to Beat the Holiday Blues this Christmas 11 Tips...
Your Authentic Life: I Feel Schizophrenic Around the Holidays
Our Token Holiday Decorations The winter holiday season used to be an exciting time of the year for me, filled with festive parties and happy social gatherings with my family and friends. I remember the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg. The...
Your Authentic Life: “Sorry Mom. I Don’t Want Your Stuff”
Three piles: One pile of stuff we think our kids would love to have. One pile of things we think we can sell. And the little pile of things we’ll take with us to our new small townhouse in Eugene. Ed and I are downsizing. It’s too much work to maintain our McKenzie...
Your Authentic Life: Don’t Give Up On Old Dogs…Unless They’re Back With Their Posse
(He gave me permission to write this.) I married Ed almost a quarter of a century ago. I married him, knowing there were things about him that would always bother me. Like that he wasn’t into international travel (I love to travel). His...
Your Authentic Life: Home Again
I’m back in Paraguay, the land of my childhood. I first came here as a baby many years ago, when my parents founded a leprosy station that I called home. Alone, I make my way along a dirt road toward our house, a red and white brick...
Your Authentic Life: The Violence of Those We Love
I’m driving along I-5, heading north toward Portland. My two adorable grandsons, 7 and 10, are fighting over something in the backseat of the car. “Please keep your hands to yourselves,” I tell them. The next thing I know water bottles are flying around my head. I see...
Your Authentic Life: The Best Part of Life
In the early decades of my life, I believed older people must envy my youth. My smooth skin. My strong muscles. My abundant energy. My dreams. Call it the hubris of young ignorance, but I was sure the best part of life had to...
Your Authentic Life: No Están Solos. You Are Not Alone
While many of you will sit around a table with family members on November 22nd, Ed and I will continue a tradition we began a few years ago. Here’s what we did last year: It was 92 degrees in Tucson that day. We sat at one of about a dozen tables temporarily set up in...