Rhyme and Reason from my Empty Nest

                                                         We have all been thrust into this new year of ours. No one even asked if we wanted to participate. So here we are. What will the new year be? What will we be in the new year? Do you feel the tug to do more in 2026 or would it be best for you to do less? This is the current question I am asking myself. It would make me feel better if you considered this question along with me. There are various personality types used by psychologists to categorize all of us. There's the Myers-Briggs Indicator . The Enneagram Number . And then there's the "I wanna do more" versus the "please can't we do less" personality types. Often these conflicting personalities reside in the same house or sleep in the same bed. These two have a challenge ahead reconciling their calendars for the new year ahead. Are you ...

                                                                          Is there that one special gift you received that stood out as extra-memorable and best over all the rest? One Christmas I was gifted a photo album overflowing with personal family photos that I had never previously seen. This one gift gave me hours of enjoyment pouring over each and every picture. This gift was among hundreds - maybe thousands - of gifts I have received over my long life. Who knows the exact number? Too crazy to count. Don't pre-judge. I'll risk putting it out there revealing I'm an only child. My being the targeted recipient of gifts in my family could get down right embarrassing. My Aunt Carol would pull up to my house at Christmas or birthday time. She would pop open the trunk of her Cadillac to reveal a trunk l...

                                                                       Is it really that time again? Guess so...against our wishes. The unwelcomed "falling back." We love the extra hour of sleep we gain but hate the hour of sun we lose. Who can we blame - or I mean give credit - for this regular occurrence that makes zero sense to most of us? Most attribute DST to Good Ole Ben Franklin but the worthy recipient should be George Hudson . Why anyone listened to this man in New Zealand in 1895, I'm not sure. Being an entomologist , he wanted more daylight to track down his bugs. We've been bugged by this ever since. Benjamin Franklin jested about DST in a satirical essay in 1784 proclaiming candles and lamp oil could be saved by changing sleep schedules. Guess Ben underestimated his influence not knowing we'd han...

                                                                        Things get lost a lot more often these days. Is it the same for you? Where are my keys? Where did I put that pesky phone? Can you call it for me? You know. All the usual stuff. We're perplexed. We're bothered but we typically locate the missing item eventually.  We receive the not-welcomed question of, "Where were you when you last had it?"  Blah. Blah. Blah.This is rarely a helpful question and more leaning toward bothersome. If I had the answer to that question, I would be standing here with a more sound mind and keys in hand! The older we get the more forgetfulness isn't casually dismissed but it more brings an added element of concern.  Am I just losing my stuff and also losing my mind? Is what is happening to me typical...

                                                                   Remember that first day when you got the news? You were going to be a grandparent! WoW! Are you sure? Can this be real?  Am I old enough for this to even be possible?  Guess so! All of a sudden, the sky looks bluer. The birds tweeted louder. All in your world looked brighter. You dreamed of exciting days on the horizon: cuddle time, reading time, play time at the park.  Endless fun to anticipate.  My first grandchild was born in Houston. That is a half a country away. I jokingly (somewhat) told them they could live in Texas but don't go having my grandbabies in Texas. That's exactly what they went and did! My second grandchild came to reside in Tennessee. That is far but a more doable distance. We got the phone call that labor had beg...

                                                                                                                                                     It's a little after 4:00pm over here. That time of day has arrived - every day - every stinking day - when the question comes up and out...What's for dinner?!  More than one can voice this question. Typically, only one is to have the answer. Not again! Yes, over and over and over again and again and again... This prevalent question has been a part of my daily agenda for the past 40 years. I'll do the math for you. That's 14.600 times! That often I have heard the quest...

                                                                       So much opportunity. So many options. How do you decide where to go when there's a whole world out there?! This debate comes around each year in most families. Where are we going on vacation? It's almost up there with "What's for dinner?" This summer is half complete. Hopefully you've already enjoyed some fun trip or one is shown soon to come on your wall calendar. I remember the challenge we had when my boys were journeying through their high school years. The big discussion was where everyone was going for spring break or summer vacation. It seemed everyone was trying to one-up one another. The most exotic trip won the oohh's and aahh's of the crowd until the next year when that exotic trip was regarded as more mundane. It was way ridicul...