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Holiday Letter from me This year did not start auspiciously for me. My younger brother died suddenly but peacefully in January in Michigan without spouse or children or last will and testament. So, the probate court appointed me the personal representative of his estate.  My…

In 2020, after businesses shut down due to the COVID19 pandemic, I volunteered full time at a beautiful bookstore run by the Episcopal Cathedral and managed by a well-organized and positive young woman.  Because many people were concerned about contracting the virus, I spent a…

This week a vehicle ran over one of my Roughneck garbage cans that was at the curb and flattened it. I thought it was a goner but I tipped it on its side and stood on the dents and pushed them out. I am more…

When I was living in Detroit and was in grade school, my family took road trips in the summer in cars without air conditioning. Three children in the back seat and parents in the front seat with no seatbelts. Up to Maine and Massachusetts and…

When I worked at the University of Michigan Medical Center, I dated a medical resident who spent some time working in the emergency room. I clearly recall a time when he came home in disbelief that a “good-looking young guy tried to commit suicide. I…

When I was in high school, the school held a two-day series of talks by people from various walks of life. The mother of someone I went to grade school with talked about marriage. I don’t remember what she talked about. I just know that…

I don’t know how to leave people or jobs or anything. I reach a breaking point (circuit overload) and blow a fuse and leave. I am learning to set boundaries and negotiate before I blow a fuse. I get tired of taking care of other…

Anne Lamott said it best when she talked about always meeting people who needed fixing up. My gift for problem solving seemingly made me a magnet for men who wanted someone to fix them. And the people who didn’t need fixing saw me as the…

One day, a couple in their 70s came into a store where I worked and kindly bickered with each other over the wife buying a $5 watch. They were cute and I told them so. When the wife had left the store, the husband came…

Human beings communicate by accident; The number of people who take offense at what they think they heard is greater than the number of people who intentionally try to offend someone.

A couple people told me that moving does not matter. Wherever I go, there I am. Which is the reason I wanted to emphasize that moving contributes to gaining new perspectives.

I used to tell my students that, if they met someone who did not disagree with everything they said, they should marry that person.

I say that some people have wanted me dead or at least want me gone, but what I know is this. In the world, 50% of the people will like you (and want YOU to like them) no matter what, and 50% of the people…

I am not good at making friends. When I taught college classes, I learned a lot about myself. First, I enjoyed learning. Not all my master’s level courses were fascinating, but I responded well to established theories. I could relate. When I taught, I didn’t…

I used to tell the students in my classes that once they step outside their house somebody is judging them. The thought of being judged is scarier to me than the actual judgments. What I know is this: the number of times I get upset…

Just start… My friend Andrea from college kept encouraging me to blog because my email messages were entertaining. But I never followed through. At a Cinco de Mayo party in 2023, a former boss who survived injuries from a life-threatening car accident (She had to…

Making friends . . . I always taught students that there’s a 50/50 rule in life: no matter what you do, 50% of the people in the world will like you and 50% won’t like you, no matter what you do. Fortunately, most of the…

I’ve always related to squirrels. Not that I’m cute and fluffy, but I run into traffic (problems) and get knocked to the curb. I am impulsive. Sometimes I get squashed, but I always get back on my feet. I have a strong memory of me…